Salvage a Smile - Laura Veirs

Dead eye from the wood of life

Hold the ropes and the rigging lines

Red-eye a.m. Here i lie

Shipwreck passing underneath

What of the sailor and her spinning wheel?

What was she thinking being

Swallowed by the water whole?

Red on the left, green on the right

You can see me coming in the morning light

Brass and glass and rusted iron

Sextant here for the heavenly bodies

Compass here but the needle’s shot

Magnetic deviation screws me up

Break the glass from your hanging lanterns

Break the sea with your blackened anchors

And you might end up a floating junk pile

But you can always scramble to salvage a smile