Poets & Children First

   
I long for inspiration    
but its train seems to be late    
The horse I call creation    
must have bolted through the gate    
   
Sometimes while I'm dreaming    
I wake and write for hours    
Come the morning all is lost    
and my poet tea tastes sour    
   
If only there was something    
a flicker or a spark    
I could seize to quell the darkness    
some cutting-edge remark    
   
Oh wait, an idea beckons    
a ship hoves into view    
This could be it - I'm sailing    
'cross oceans bright and blue    
   
I'll write about the voyage    
an idea quite profound    
but half a salty sentence    
and my words have run aground    
   
I think I might be seasick    
an event quite untoward    
so I'd better cling on tightly    
lest I stumble overboard    
   
There's a captain in my head    
as I bite my bottom lip    
and what is it that he's shouting?    
Ah, yes: "Abandon ship."