Between the sea and the sky

Spring clean for the Cutty Sark ahead of Queen’s visit

London Evening Standard, 25 April 2012

She's a sight to see, this bonnie witch,

all yellow metal and teak.

Been at Greenwich so long,

as long as our Queen,

she's been listed a national treasure,

a voyage's end not its means.

Anchor detail long since drifted ashore,

the master-at-arms and his daughter too,

no trade wind to catch her full square

to make the clew-lines snap and sing.

It's a whale carcass on a beach

not her majesty tourists flock to see.

Out at sea she was a dolphin

leading a dolphin parade. Making way

for the Cape, the ratlines crawling

with tars, the barrelman calling

the watch, the Atlantic swell breaking

over the deck off the windward bow.

The first mate, he’s not sparing

the boy at the bilge pump brake.

And how she scythes the waves!

Not a ship on the wind can catch her

between her coming abreast and the sight

of her name on her fantail stern!

Rising square rigged from the fire, I vouch

she still smells of China tea.

But today she's swabbed and crewed,

all hands mustered above board

and boatwain's piping the side.

Her brightwork and gunwails shine,

her taffrail too, the unfurled ensign flaps

as she takes her leave of the shore

for the very first time in fifty years.

Built to displace twenty thousand tons,

now she ascends like a prayer

for ever between the sea and the sky.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet