I
The bottle is there for beating -
Bobbing, cartwheeling through the foam,
Embrittled by salty scratches,
Abrased with sandy crackling.

II
What was mighty oak
In conversation with the sky,
Arguing with soily bosom
Is now but castaway flotsam.

III
Wind blown, water bloated,
Chill filled, buffet broken,
Hull struck, cracked and fractured,
Wending down to ocean graveyard.

Ellen MacArthur, English Sailor, was born today in 1976.

Richard Aldington, English writer and poet, was born on this day in 1892.