Paper Boats

We sail in paper boats on the sea of human experience,
To islands of hope and beauty
Where the sunset kisses the purple sky with tinges of orange and pink
And dolphins laugh as they play with us on the seas that lull us to sleep
in the tranquility of their rhythmic waves,
And places of sorrow and terror
As tsunamis of agony threaten to overwhelm us in the storms of injustice and circumstance
And we can, at any moment, be dashed upon the unseen rocks,
Which are the choices of other people
That appear out of nowhere in the darkest of nights
 
We do not know how fragile our ship is
Until the first wave overwhelms us
Or the first rock scrapes against the bow
And we plunge, unexpected, into the ocean,
Unsure if we even know how to swim
 
Once we know the fragility of our own existence,
We work hard to chart paths for ourselves on cosmic maps,
Hoping to find more islands of happiness than reefs of despair,
And yet the engines in our paper boats can only do so much,
For they cannot fight the winds of time or the currents of circumstance,
And we will necessarily be dashed against the rocks again and again,
Overcome with sorrow and anguish and loss,
 
And though there are many beautiful islands in our path,
We cannot live from one glorious landing to the next,
For sometimes there are long stretches in these archipelagos of ambrosia
Where we founder on the rocks, cycle through whirlpools,
Or find ourselves in the deadest of seas without any wind to push us forward
 
Perhaps we should be certain we know how to swim,
Instead of trying to avoid destruction,
For there is no getting from one island to the next
Without the dangerous and deadly sea crossings,
And we will only waste our time trying to circumvent
The whole of human experience
Our boats are only made of paper, after all,
And they cannot be expected to endure forever,
But perhaps we can endure forever;
You’d be surprised what you can live without.