The Labrador’s Return

She limped up the harbor like an old fisherman

Tired and weary and scarred to the bone

Covered in sea ice from stem to her stern

A ghostly specter of a war hero coming home alone

Four months in the ice so thick it cracks steal

Supplies running low and moral gone to hell

Radio lost from the ice storm in the strait

Sickness and sadness all cured with a pill

Polar bears for companions, mermaids sing on the bergs

The Northern sky hovers with lights in her eyes

Alone in coffin like bunks, memories always oh home

Each night try to accept that day’s skipper’s new lies

One more trip to Pond Inlet, then on to Hudson Bay

Guide a freighter to Greenland we must earn our pay

From Greenland to Labrador, icebreaking our trade

Year after year we watch the salt turn us all gray

Now the old girl sees the dock she calls home

Family and friends waiting seem like strangers unknown

Hang out the life preserver that proudly carries her name

C.C.G.S. Labrador has made it safely back home.