<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- AUTOCENTO OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE --> <!-- vim: fdm=indent --> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="generator" content="pandoc"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes"> <meta name="author" content="Case Duckworth"> <title>The shipwright | Autocento of the breakfast table</title> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="trunk/favico.png" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="trunk/style.css"> <script src="scripts/randomize.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script src="scripts/hylo.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <!--[if lt IE 9]> <script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"> </script> <![endif]--> </head> <body id="shipwright" class="elegies"> <article class="container"> <header> <!-- title --> <h1 class="title">The shipwright</h1> <div class="header-extra"> </div> </header> <section class="content verse"> <p><span class="line">He builds a ship as if it were the last thing</span><span class="line">holding him together, as if, when he stops,</span><span class="line">his body will fall onto the plate-glass water</span><span class="line">and shatter into sand. To keep his morale up</span><span class="line">he whistles and sings, but the wind whistles <a href="apollo11.html">louder</a></span><span class="line">and taunts him: Your ship will build itself</span><span class="line">if you throw yourself into the sea; time</span><span class="line">has a way of growing your beard for you.</span><span class="line">Soon, you’ll find yourself on a rocking chair</span><span class="line">on some porch made from your ship’s timbers.</span><span class="line">The window behind you is made from a sail, thick</span><span class="line">canvas, and no one inside will hear your calling</span><span class="line">for milk or a chamberpot. Your children</span><span class="line">will have all sailed to the New World and left you.</span><span class="line">But he tries not to listen, continues to hammer</span><span class="line">nail after nail into timber after timber,</span><span class="line">but the wind <a href="theoceanoverflowswithcamels.html">finally blows</a> him into the growling ocean</span><span class="line">and the ship falls apart on its own.</span></p> </section> </article> <nav> <div class="anchors"> <a href="backlinks/shipwright.html" id="backlinks" title="Links to this page"> φ </a> <a href="index.html" id="coverlink" title="To cover">◊</a> <a href="#" id="randomizelink" title="ERROR">ξ</a> </div> <a class="prevlink" href="serengeti.html" title="Previous article in Elegies for alternate selves"> Serengeti </a> <a class="nextlink" href="spittle.html" title="Next article in Elegies for alternate selves"> Spittle </a> </nav> </body> </html>