Fritz Liebrich

Our ferry

So steadily she floats on to and fro,
carries all over the water, none ‘s too heavy.

You pay your mite, cosily you settle there.

A bit a splash, a bit a ripple
and plashes on the water.

Once across, you alight.
What’s there? A closer path,
eventually then, your house.

Possibly some calm.
Quietly, she hugs you
and enfolds you,
shoos away that fist-full
of gnats, troubles,
that still raise and fall
and cluster about your soul,
as evil spirits tend to.

Hey, ferryman,
bell-head, you!
Speed up, get a move on!
To yonder bank, to yonder peace!