OUR LITTLE RAFT.

In a sea of dinghy's and oil tankers and sleek motorboats,
Your love is like a raft.
Some people float past clutching on to tree beaches
Some lie at the bottom of the sea.

Our little raft works tirelessly to keep me afloat
Even if sometimes water leaks in through little holes
And our toes do get wet.

Occasionally, someone in a shiny sailing boat
Or purring motor vessel
Has called to me and invited me aboard.
Jump ship !
We have caviar.
But I wouldn't leave you and I and out dear little raft.

You brought me the foundations
The sturdy driftwood and rusty nails
The soiled rags and the old broomstick we use as a mast
And I showed you how to patch it together.
We sanded and oiled and scrubbed and hammered and patched
Then stood back to admire our dear little raft
And rode the windy seas.

I once mistakenly hammered a nail into your thumb
When trying to show you how to piece things back together.
Salt and blood mixed in the wind
As I tore off a strip of the ragged sail to compensate for my mistakes.

You once tripped and keeled overboard
In the midst of a storm.
I was barely there
Grasping at sea foam and trilling your name
Violently sick at the thought of the raft and I at sea without you.

But you emerged coughing and splattering from the waves
I hoisted you aboard, where you sat dripping and shaking.
We still don't mention that day.

And then the time that we so bitterly argued
Against the biting winds.
You threatened to dismantle all that you had brought and built
And take your seaworn driftwood with you.

We floated in silence for a few hours
Side by side
Before you splashed some water my way.
Let's not fight
Is all it took to get us back aboard.

Then there was the one day that I saw an island.
I thought of leaving our dear little raft
And swimming off to a quieter paradise
But something of your familiar silhouette against the moonlight
And the lapping of the sea against the worn timber frame
Made me stay.