A captain’s best

Upside the bow a roarer broke

The windward wave did stave the stroke

Shuddered cross the hardest folk

And loosed each cannon free.

The lurch had swept some men below

And stressed to taught the raft and rope

But pilfered most the Deckhand’s hope

To save the blokes at sea.

“Save it boy, the rage you feel

Turn your strife to stern and steel

Guard your step, now take the wheel”

The captain boomed to he.

A cannon lodged the sailor’s chest

And soon would come eternal rest

But he last recited a captain’s best

To turn the tide of misery:

When all is once

And once is done,

I’ll set out on

A setting sun.

Ahead the glint

Of crested waves,

Behind the cause

Of Death invades.

Ahead the churn

Of strident seas,

Behind stand still

The deathly trees.

The captain then fell closed his eyes

Unmoored at last without reprise

His final words relit the skies

And cooled the quaking sea.

The Deckhand’s grip was at the helm,

A novice made in a master’s realm.

Adorned now in steely brave,

Tempered by the mast and the grave.