The Sandbank

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

When the river meets the ocean
it strives to remember its nascent
and a sandbank of sadness forms.
A ship can, in moonless nights,
run aground and get stuck in deep melancholy
and her crew will never be able to forget their dread.
Forever tramp, in a haze of gloom,
on a rusty deck- striving to recall
a mythical childhood land
where summers, by the river’s banks,
were warm and long,
the future a thrilling dream of daring things to do
when reaching adulthood.