Looking back, a lifetime ago or so it now seems

One of the things that was foremost in my dreams

Was the thought of growing up and becoming someone

Like Jacques Cousteau, only an American one

I would study and fight for marine conservation

With all of the ocean’s life my great fascination

Sometimes sitting there on the edge of ocean shore

It was my dream I cherished I thought forevermore

Looking up and listening to the seagulls cry

My face lost in the mystic as I choked on my reply

If we would not save the whales, who would save humanity

And after all was it true that perhaps all of this was vanity?

Settling in as time passed into some more reasonable instruction

I became lost and castaway on the rocks of life’s own destruction