The nurse paints on my puffed belly
The Load line or the Plimsoll mark.
She says it will rise and fall through salt water
And where the tidal streams
Connive to build their rudimentary dreams,
She says my weight will be greater.
So much for the spindles, pulleys and shafts
Who conspire to show
My maximum permitted loading
For Winter North Atlantic, Indian Summer
And Tropical Fresh Water.
For as I tell her over and over,
I never plan to leave this world again.
Gerard Fanning
