[Roger Slater]

TO SEE THE SEA

I was born in a land-locked country,
far from a glimpse of the sea.
From reading I knew that the ocean was blue
and as big as a big thing could be,

and I knew it was home to great creatures,
like starfish and dolphins and whales,
and poets adored it, and heros explored it
propelled by the wind in their sails,

and I dreamed that someday I would see it,
I'd stand on the shore and behold,
but the years went by fast, and my chances all passed,
and my dream, like my bones, is too old.