Of Loss and Love

He hadn’t been home a day before

He found that his wife had died,

The doctor said it was sudden, that

There was something wrong inside.

He couldn’t be more specific till

The autopsy was done,

He’d have to wait for a week for that,

‘It’s the same for everyone.’

 

He went on back to an empty home

And then he gave way to grief,

It wasn’t as if he had a friend

To offer him some relief,

He’d been away on the ocean swell

On a Tramp from Amsterdam,

For six months out of eleven when

He should have been home, with Pam.

 

A sailor’s life is a lonely life

He had known that from the start,

He possibly shouldn’t have taken a wife

When they’d be so far apart,

For seven years they had worked it out

And his wife had said she’d cope,

But loneliness is a dreadful thing

When you’re living your life in hope.

 

He’d loved her well and she loved him too

In their sentimental way,

She’d managed to hide her tears each time

That his ship had sailed away,

But once he had seen the autopsy

It had torn him quite apart.

It seems his wife had despaired of dreams

And died of a broken heart.

 

He didn’t go back to sea at once

But he hung around in bars

And managed to get himself so drunk

That all he could see was stars,

He thought his grief would diminish as

The days had turned into years,

But love for him didn’t finish, it

Just seemed to work in reverse.

 

He even took down her pictures, and

He locked them all in a drawer,

He didn’t want the reminder of

What he had lost before,

But life is a game of chances and

It never will be denied,

He met a nurse when he found her purse

And something lit up inside.

 

It seemed her job was a lot like his

She was always working shifts,

They met whenever they could, and he

Found he was buying gifts,

He went away on a Tramp again

But just one month at a time,

And she was waiting when he returned

Like a welcome carafe of wine.

 

He spent some time at the cemetery

To honour his wife, his Pam,

And she asked if she could come along

To which he had said, ‘You can.’

He wed the girl in the early Spring

And he found a job ashore,

And swore he’d never go back to sea,

She couldn’t have loved him more.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Workvio]

I have had this piece bookmarked for quite some time, as circumstances have made it difficult for me to be on the web as much as I desire to ... It is my loss to have not read this sweetly sad and romantic poem before today ... This poem speaks to my heart in ways you may never know or understand ... It is very well written and the message is most powerful and emotional to an old fool like me ... Bravo ...!

[Barbz]

It is, indeed a lonely life for a wife whose husband is at sea, or otherwise for many months at a time. if Pam was suffering, it was probably made worse by his absence. He lived in silent despair for the lack of solace. After a " nothing to live for" period, he found time a healer, and as luck would have it, he met a nurse with similar work schedules........Love bloomed again, as he discovered that " there's no place like Home".....thank you, as always DLP, for your perfection and the Bittersweetness of this piece..Barbz

[Tomás Ó C..]

A sailors lot is not a happy one!