HULL-DOWN

Hull-down, the small boy watched them pass
Gray topsails etched against the sky
And dreamed that someday he might stand
Upon a tall ship sailing by.

Upon a ship with billowed sails,
Bound off to some far distant land,
Beyond the place where sails turned gray,
To eyes that viewed them from the strand.

He little knew, in years ahead,
Such wooden decks his feet would tread;
Such sails he'd learn to reef and stow
In tropic heat and winter snow.

And yet, the day of sail was done;
He'd see them vanish one by one.
Some died in unused creeks and bays
And some in far more violent ways.

The rocks and reefs and winter gales
Have cleared the sea of tall gray sails,
And boys today can never see
Those ships, hull down, that called to me.

(Francis E. 'Biff' Bowker)