Exceptional For as long as we've watched the waves come ashore, we yearn Teach Me Love of Life by Reese Turner Story/Prose Poem contest entry

What fun we were having, us guys were away From home and our wives and our kids, at play. A weekend, just men, fishing, beer, And nobody to rein in our cheer. We stopped at the pub, with the deck on the bay.   How we were laughing loud and telling our lies When I spotted an old man with tears in his eyes Sitting alone, with half a beer, he Slumped, with sad face, staring to sea. I had to reach out, won’dring not if it wise.   “Sir, may I join you for a beer and a chat? Those boys are too loud in the place where I sat So, tell me, what is your thought?” “It’s love, said he, “that which brought Me to sit and remember love’s this and that."   “Love, is it?” I replied, “A special lady now gone?” “Not really,” he said, “It’s all the places I’ve known. I rode Peak Tram to Victoria Heights, Kissed Lee Chun in Hong Kong’s lights. What a beauty, but my ship sailed, I was gone.”   “So, a sailor you were. Sailed the seas, saw the world,” I said as I laughed, “And in each port, you had a girl!” He smiled, “Not so much. Those old tales Of sailor’s ladies are bigger than whales. Truth, it’s more the places I remember as pearl...”   “Then the tears,” asked I, “are not for a lost lover?” “Maybe a little, but more for things I’d discover; Music, foods, drinks, art and more Things this farm boy had not seen before. My friend and my love, the sea, all thanks to her.”   How odd to me; Not for women did he now cry, On that deck by the sea, as the world passes by, T’was the faces of places he’d been, For pleasures and treasures he’d seen; Oh, could he teach me love of life, thought I...   Author Notes You cannot fall in love with life in your chair, or watching your TV, or in your hometown, or in your native state, or within the borders of your birth... Life is lived best near the edge of what you've known, plus a few steps more.

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