Sailor's Blessing

May your winds be swift, your skies be fair
Your hands saltborn, your ablutions rare
Your whisky never dry, your lips cracked and split
Your coat ever wet, your speech a cesspit
May you hail harbor maidens, clothed and unclothed
Learn the secret language the hollow shells hold
Taste the ancient liquor from a thousand Persian ports
Glimpse the gallant freighters sunk by pirate lords
Pocket Spanish coins from Atlantean depths
Discard the surface world, descend Poseidon's steps
May nymphs caress your dreams, coral comb your hair
Marlins trim your beard, dolphins roam your lair
May your laughter be the spume of the bellowing whale
Your voice the lonely moan of the secular gale
Your soul the flight of the royal albatross
Your home the shattered town the sea has crossed
But above all, may brine line your coffee cup
While mermaids rub your chest in Triton's tub
May your feet spurn the touch of the Earth Goddess
You, my friend, who worshipped Thetis.