Matching Eyes

They called him Cap'n Barney and he sailed from Barnegat -
the most fearless captain, he was, that this seadog ever met.
Twin devils lived within his eyes, his hair was black as tar.
Barney was my captain and we hit ports near and far.

Nobody knew where he came from, he just showed up one day.
His story is known along the coast, it happened in this way.
The kindly lighthouse keeper found him on his morning round,
and named him "li'l Barney," for the spot where he was found.
There'd been a shipwreck in the storm that raged the night before.
With the flotsam and the jetsam, he was tossed upon the shore.
The keeper took him to the lighthouse, more dead than alive,
and nurtured li'l Barney, 'til he knew he would survive.

Kind villagers all cared for this scrap of humanity
that came to live amongst them, their child from out the sea.
As time went by, as it will do, he grew to sturdy lad,
living with the lighthouse keeper, his adopted dad.
You'd find him on a sunny morning, so I have been told,
digging with a little spade the beach, for pirate's gold.
But always looking toward the ocean, with a puzzle on his brow.
Was he wond'rin' even then if he'd find his folks, and how?

But even as he wondered, he must have known they'd died.
For, nobody else was rescued when he tossed in with the tide.
And tho' the keeper'd always been the best father he could know,
he was helpless to ease Barney's mind, watching his obsession grow.

Did he have family somewhere?  Barney had to do his best
to find a clue from where they'd sailed, to put his mind to rest.
And so he searched the coastline for any bits of lore
kept from that stormy night a shipwreck washed up on the shore.

When he was seventeen or so, a young determined man,
he signed onto a ship, for the beginning of his plan.
Someday he'd sail his own ship; that much for sure he knew.
It wasn't many years before he was captain with a crew.

Barney was my captain; I sailed with him a dozen years.
he was a fearless captain, and we learned to deal with fears.
At every port where we put down, every foreign place,
his orders was to help him search, to find his matching face.

We never found his counterpart, tho' we searched like cahoots.
So he became disheartened, and thought he should put down roots.
Twin devils lived in Barney's eyes, with no match in these parts,
but his grin was captivating, and could melt the maiden's hearts.
They swarmed like bees to honey, when into port he came,
but he wooed and married Violet, whose eyes matched to her name.
He tried, but couldn't seem to find contentment on the land.
When he told his wife his lifelong quest, she tried to understand.
She prayed that he'd return someday, relieved of troubled heart.
It would be only then they'd start anew, no more to part.
Barney was a fearless man, he ran a rugged ship. 
I was away, when he embarked on that last fateful trip.

A year went by, and then I heard that Barney's life was o'er.
A raging storm had struck at sea, like that one that hit the shore.
My task was to bear the tidings, a mission I didn't choose.
It was a stormy morning I faced Violet with the news.

The rains that fell from heaven were like teardrops from the skies.
They matched the tears that fell from the young widow's violet eyes.
I heard a gurgle, so I turned, and there near the fireplace
was a cradle - and peering up I glimpsed a tiny face.

And I hoped that someday, somewhere, he would know her sweet surprise
for I'd found what Barney'd searched for - his matching dev'lish eyes.

-Lillian Arnold Lopez "Pineylore"

HOME