This is my follow-up poem to "Son of the Sea." The unconventional structure is intentional. The scene and events referenced are, of course, from the "Targets without a Badge" story arc.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from "Starsky and Hutch." I do occasionally borrow them, but never with fraudulent intent or with an eye to monetary gain.

Cast Away

By e-pony

The relentless pull of wind and wave

Recalls a gift the sea once gave

To a younger man, in mind and heart.

What gleamed with promise at the start

Has tarnished in the tide of time

And tilled a good man's grave.

xxx

Two castaways, we stand,

Unsteady on the shifting sand

Pulled seaward by the ebbing flow.

And, past in hand,

We reach behind to throw

Our futures to uncertain winds –

To cast away the life we know –

Alone, on that deserted strand.

xxx

Yet friendship proves the tether

That anchors to the shore

Those set adrift to weather

Fate's fearsome wrack and roar.

This storm, we'll front together,

As we've faced each one before.

xxx

The pulsing lull of wind and wave

Renews a gift the sea once gave

To a wanderer, in mind and heart.

A promise, binding from the start,

Now polished by the tide of time,

Will stand us 'til the grave.