Forty Little Children

To present his formal position on the junior sailing debate, Saving Sailing author Nicholas Hayes was compelled to poetry:

Forty Little Children
By Nicholas Hayes

Forty little children,
all in a row
Doing what daddy didn't,
but look dear what a show!

Twenty kids in team shirts,
awesomely prepared.

Half go for the fauxhawk,

the rest get Bieber hair.

Twelve ready tweeners,
hit the line on time.
Starboard looks favored,
but port!, dad yells, is fine.

Six near grownup ducklings,
quack, quack, quack.
Saying, "take to the air, sis,
and
don't
look
back."

Gram and Grandpa wonder,
where did they go?
Our kids?
And theirs, the ones like ducks
who lived to be the show?

The bay need not be empty.
It's fun from spring to fall.
But to share it,
really share it.
We need not some, but all.