I suppose I might have known
At the start: on the day I took her helm.
I could feel it in her timbers
Written deep in every board and beam.

Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen.

It was easy to forget
As she sprinted down the slipway.
Serene amidst the crash and wave and spray
As one born to the water.

But even then it was true:
Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen.

Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen:
Whether cast upon a foreign shore
Or sunken, out of sight beneath the waves
Or secretly, shamefully stripped in a wrecker’s yard.

Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen.

Oh and we had our times.
When the sea was up
And every wave ploughed over:
a victory.

Or when the calm of ages descended
And there came upon us
That eternal silence
Of the deep.

Days of bright sunlight
And dark tempest
Hard going
And easy breeze.

We scarcely thought about it then, but:
Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen.

Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen:
And even unsinkable ships sink.
It is written in their timbers:
In every board and beam.

And so she lies:
Masts broken,
Rigging ragged, torn and tangled,
Hull splintered.

They urge me to move on:
To newer, bigger, better craft.
She had her time – good time:
Now others take her place.

But my eyes, through tears, are filled with:
Masts broken,
Rigging ragged,
Hull splintered.

I see her form upon the shore
Where all ships, in their time, are dashed.
But, now, amongst the carnage
One other wreck takes my eye.

One wreck, in whose beams the word is: life!
One wreck whose every wound is victory
One wreck at once past, present, future
One wreck which rises on the tide…

And so, I have a hope.
A dream.
A promise.
A light.

Every ship is a shipwreck waiting to happen:
But I wait for another age
When this ship will be made anew
And the word in every board and beam is life.