Hubris

Hubris *

I drive by the creek every day,
Boats lazily bump against the dock.
Up on the hill sit others, on cement blocks.
I whiz by as my eye catches,
Is that her? Could it be my old love Hubris?
Forlorn, abandoned, left high and dry
On cement blocks. It’s an indignity!

She and I sailed to the city going west
And to Montauk going east;
Through Shinicock and Moriches Inlets
With the wind whistling in her sails.
Her tiller in my hands I could sing
In full throat my song of joy;
As the water, the boat, the wind,
All in one perfect harmony.
And her name was Hubris.

Slowly but surely I knew,
One day my drive-by would stop.

As I looked across the creek
She kept calling to me for rescue.
Her name was chosen in the face of Poseidon.
He was smashing waves ‘oer her deck.
We were in deep water. What to do?
Snug inside her cabin we waited it out,
Waited for Poseidon to quit his rage.
He raged. The Oday just bounced around
Like a rubber duck in a baby’s bath.
For how long? Maybe an hour, two or three?

Poseidon blessed her heart. He called her Hubris.
No way was she to spend her late years
Rotting away on cement blocks.
To the rescue!

A visit, the sun was setting in a ruby red sky.
Criss-crossed old rail tracks marked
This ancient ruin of a boatyard.
Rubbish strewn cover from banishment.
But Hubris was sound in structure.
I thought, with a little love and a lot of luck
She’d sail the ocean blue yet again.

I went sailing, ass over tea kettle, my face in the mud.
I lay there a while. What to do? What to do?
Cell phone them 911?
What do I say? “I’m in this ancient boatyard
Between the Oday 22 and the Catalina 30?”
What’ll Kate think? “My God, what did he do now?”

No, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
Start all over again.”
Wisdom from Frank Sinatra.

But you can’t go home again.
Oh that’s baloney!
Get Hubris back in the water. We’ll show ‘em.
Well maybe after my leg stops screaming.
You stupid idiot! What were you thinking

As you lay in the ruins of an ancient boat yard?
Yeah, yeah, I know, if you could just get hubris back in the water,
You’d be back in ‘82 sailing the ocean blue.
Only you forgot, the man in black is at your back.

Thank you Kate N.H.W.Y.

(“Hubris” Greek word,challenging the Gods usually resulting in failure.)