South Pacific, aboard ship, underway, at Twilight.
Our ship knifes through the choppy Sea.
An iridescent glow appears now along the Hull
As it slices through the water.
Flying Fish, appear alongside the ship.
On a good trip, Bottle Nose Dolphins, appear,
Racing with our Destroyer Escort.
It's hot and muggy. Staying topside,
Is cooler than being below, in our quarters.
I have Evening Watch, 2100 hours to Mid.
We are dressed in dungarees, rolled to our knees,
With a faded, Chambray shirts.
Up the ladder to C.I.C, (combat information center),
To sit in front of a RADAR scope
On the look out for other ships.
If we see a contact, we take a reading and range,
And another member, will plot the time and bearing,
On white paper that is atop of a DRT (dead reckoning tracer).
The DRT moves on the course direction of our ship.
We report course, bearing and time every 5 or 10 minutes,
Depending on the distance from our ship.
We have been trained that if the bearing of the contact,
Remains constant, then we are on a collision course,
At some future time. We alert the bridge,
Who will make a minor course correct to avoid a collision.
The next watch has now arrived, we enter information
In our Log.
Leaving. It's down the ladder to the Boat Deck; Down another ladder
To the main deck, then down another ladder to our quarters
Which is located next to the laundry. Thankfully they're not working.
Up on my hammock I go to try to sleep as Revellie is early
And roll call is at 0800 hours.

Serpent like, it too to the sky,
spreading it's wings, it began to fly.
Swoops and dips, with a loop or two,
It would fly by and spray the dew.
The air from it's massive wings,
Made my heart happy; funny things,
From legends of the past, long ago,
When it flew, it put on a show.
Alas all the people that we know,
Saw it disappear, as away it flew.
Will it return? That's hard to say,
For if children wish hard
Who is to say.

Let us fly on gossamer wings,
Into the air that Nature brings.
Lift up into the beautiful sky,
Flapping our wings, as we try
To soar for hours each day,
Seeing the flowers colorful array.

Many, many years ago
to Chatsworth, California I did go.
It was raining hard.
The streets were wet.
I wondered where the water went
for there were no gutters
or storm drains for the rain to take,
so water ran mostly at random
down the street with sheer abandum.