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.