On the Flip of a Coin

From the point he gazed, from the choice was made

But walk the cave, or the shore?

The oily cave seemed to breathe on him from gravestone jaws

His little hand grasped in anguish as he weighed up his coin

Somewhere a blue-eyed girl in the world is just waiting for a boy

Footprints trailed as if trod by slaves up to the gray cave floor

But not one graze from anything ever escaping this fort

So with coin on hand, his joy came back when ordered to take the shore

Why on earth, as he wandered the warmth, am I obeying this coin?

Turn your life on the flip of this coin

Turn upside, a choice you'd normally avoid

And promise me you'll follow what it says

Whatever it says

Again, walk within the trusted beach or swim the swell of the sea

And again the scarier alternative looked like certain death to he

He'd never learnt to skill of swimming, it never occurred to be very easy

And again he winced as he flipped his coin and it twirled to his feet

How is this sane? He blamed the coin now aiming for the waves

As he hesitated at the swirl of water that now raged and rained

Blue-eyed girls were waiting and he was drowning in the spray

Blue eyed girls he should have been acquainted with

But for shouting and flailing

Turn your life on the flip of this coin

Turn upside, a choice you'd normally avoid

And promise me you'll follow what it says

Whatever it says

He finally slugs it back to land, feeling chewed up and foolish

Empties his pockets on the sand spewing a pool each

Staggers back to his dad who's too cool to be

So he says, "Why did you have me follow this stupid rule, please"

To be honest little fellow I'll tell you ,I was just as afraid as you

But you said you wanted to get with people and places ever new

And I got a bit scared about the fate  of my baby son's future

So I invented a reason to see whether you could ever make do

As soon as you appeared behind that rock looking angry at me

I soon realized what a hell of a man you've ended up being

I knew you'd worked out how to swim, which I hadn't had in me

And I stand as a companion of you, proudest a man has ever been

Turn your life on the flip of this coin

Turn upside, a choice you'd normally avoid

And promise me you'll follow what it says

Whatever it says