The swallow came and rest upon the gravestone
It closed its eyes and felt the captain there
An old friend looking out over the landscape
Smoking his pipe and perfuming the air

It missed the warmth it felt seeing the ship at sea
It wondered if the captain would ever sail again
Or would he be a swallow too or even a shark
An eternity on land, a hell it could not construe

Why did they put you in the ground?
Surely you were better suited at sea?
How did they not know your wishes?
Your daughter cries aimlessly
For hours she sits beside you and waffles
On about abandonment and grief
Her mother never loved and what happened
Was a child growing up with no relief

She never understood why you left them
Her mother never told her the truth
So in death she doth grab you and hold you close
Making up for the time absent in her life

She tells tales of watching the waves roar
Sunsets while flights of swallows dance
Meandering the rocks and the cliff edge
Hoping to see a fair captain in the distance

I watched her grow on the pebbles
Feeling her way across the shore
Launching her message in a bottle
And now kneeling beside you on the floor

The swallow fluttered above the gravestone
Bid adieu to his land bound friend
Until next time Captain he signaled
And back to the sea it flew