Revised 10/21: Barnacles

I didn’t like the close on that first version. This seems cleaner, but I’m not 100% satisfied.

Barnacles
These are not accomplishments:
Surviving a year, falling in love, making a promise, taking a loan.
Granted well-timed birth, propensity to books and worry,
proper schools, I passed by luck
(and care and wealth, not mine)
through the shoals of idiot youth–
I’ve done precious little on my own.

A man thirtyish, married and mortgaged —
As notable as a barnacle who’s found a hull.
And yet of note: In all the sea we’ve found our place,
latched on, and won’t let go.