Sea Music Festival

 Ahoy, the old sea dog Flaneur

 invites you to get with this trip,

 to burn your lanterns on the waves

to sing out under the sky 

Another fine breezy day, 

a sunny Saturday in September 

with a lot of boats out

 Sails arrayed in a vast ballet

adorned in lyrical clouds, 

Come with me, I'll take you where

 the taste of life is free

The herd has begun to thin this time of year,

You can pop into this Sailor Jerry outlet

for nautical hipster gear, but why bother?

 The breeze was steady if not stiff,

I knew where to shelter for lunch and libation,

Percolating hornpipes and busy fiddles kept the mood

 These were the sea chanty punk rockers

(Madness with a member or two of Hawkwind)

The hair demographic skews a bit white

There's a Steampunk vibe too,

Hard to tell but this baby was fired up
and steaming

An Hawaiian migration

follows the sun,

Take me with you when you go

A group sing down the pier, 

There was to be a chanty sing later

But the main show was winding down toward five,

 I joined the group sing for the closer

The fellow in the red shirt could sing,

He sounded like an old Irish fisherman

Looking back at the pier

and the little beach where I rested a while,

It's protected by the wind-breaks at two private beach clubs,

Look at all the perpendicular flags

A small green inflatable dinghy sits by the one small sand dune

At one point a uniform came over to ask if it was mine,

If it wasn't so windy I might have paddled it away

Like a virgin,

Time for me to slip into a vestal vessel

and shove off

The Secret of the Sea

Inter-chapter Four

13 September 2014