Miss Delilah

Down on the dock where the shrimp boats lean
Sam drinks slow by the piling green
The tide pulls hard at the rope and ring
Miss Delilah is an empty thing
She walked away with the salt from his tongue
The strength from his hands and the words unsung
Left him counting the gulls till dark
With a dead calm burning behind his heart

Folks on the pier said, Sam, stay tied
Black clouds were building beyond the tide
But he cast off with a bottles on board
And Miss Delilah slipped from the shore
The channel markers blurred in the rain
The inlet turned like a rusted chain
Miss Delilah engine running low
Slipped out far where the big ones go

The storm came down like a door kicked wide
White water climbed the starboard side
Blind in the spray, he hollered her name
The sea gave back no word, no blame
His lantern went dark past the outer bar
The rain erased where the breakers are
By morning the inlet was cold and gray
And no one saw Sam come home that day