Sailor's Tale

Shore down in the Ditchy Roads
when the first of the peals came over.
You'd have thought the master of ships would have said
it was a chancey lie,
but as it was, we were pressed to the back,
and keeling till to the boards, with none left over.
Well and well, it was a hard claw, no denying,
but we after took and belled the horn
with all sails flying ribbons to the sky.
Who'd ever take that course again,
you must heed this warning, truly given:
Take no loft to the peal, for God's eye is in it,
and you'll likely be sent all a-bearing to hell,
for a man is a man,
and a woman a woman,
and only the children may sail.

February 3 2016