Downeaster Alexa

 "The Downeaster 'Alexa'"

Well I'm on the downeaster "Alexa"
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound
We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
Left this morning from the bell in Gardiner's Bay
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
Too proud to leave, I work my fingers to the bone

So I could own my downeaster "Alexa"
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can't fall asleep
I got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there, but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But I got people back on land who count on me

So if you see my downeaster "Alexa"
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trolling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel

Yay-o
Yay-o
Yay-o
Yay-yay-o

Now I drive my downeaster "Alexa"
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they told me I can't sell no stripers
And there's no luck in swordfishing here
I was a bayman like my father was before
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me

Yay-yay-yay-o
Yay-yay-yay-o
Yay-yay-yay-o
Yay-yay-yay-o

You were there

 In the darkest of times, you saved my life. You were there. There is no reason I should’ve gotten up off that floor. My blood had dropped so fast and drastically that I couldn’t control and then black. There is no one near me. There is no one here. I fell down. I didn’t get up for 3 hours yet I didn’t die. There is no logic or rational why I survived but I did. You or God was there. There is a memory of someone by my side. It didn’t come to me until just now. I can see myself in my living room as if I’m hovering above myself and there is someone by my side. Just watching over me. The person is bright and glowing….or shrouded in white. It is the only positive in this situation. It doesn’t feel like a fork in the road. It feels like the end of one road, going out through the sand and into the ocean and then the ocean opens up for me.