Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle . Our host is
Brenda Warren; her prompt words for this week are
shown below. Here’s where the prompts took me.
split, cringe, breathe, pieces, wings, cracks,
beneath, hesitates, stretch, ship, spin, and chaos
The ship rolls beneath my feet as another wave hits. I breathe hard against the salt spray and stretch my arms wide for balance. Above, the gulls spin in wild patterns, their wings catching light between storm clouds.
“Look out!” someone shouts.
The main sail split hours ago, torn into ragged pieces by winds that won’t stop. Now the smaller sails fight the havoc, snapping and whipping overhead. Each gust makes me cringe, waiting for another crack of canvas giving way.
The captain hesitates at the wheel, studying the dark water ahead. Cracks spider across the deck where the wood has taken too much punishment. We’re three days from port with a damaged vessel and a sky that promises worse to come.
A gull lands near my hand on the rail. It cocks its head, seemingly unbothered by the ship’s lurching motion. I watch it preen casually while we humans scramble and shout. The bird lifts off again, joining its companions in their effortless dance above the struggling ship.
“We’ll make it,” the first mate says, gripping my shoulder. “Ships like this don’t go down easy.”
I nod, watching the birds spin and soar. They’ve seen a thousand storms, a thousand vessels fighting the same battle we fight now. The chaos doesn’t touch them. They simply ride it, wings spread wide, masters of the wind that tries to break us beneath them.
NAR©2026
This is “The Wellerman (Sea Shanty) by Nathan Evans
All text and graphics are copyright for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.
The Elephant's Trunk 
Great response Nancy I was right there on deck … Infact I was the seagull! 😉.
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