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Welcome ! | Home · FAQ · Topics · Web Links · Your Account · Submit Poetry · Top 30 · OldSite Link | 10-June 21:23:45 AEST | ||
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Array
(
[sid] => 54737
[catid] => 1
[aid] => mick
[title] => The Idle Sisters
[time] => 2004-07-04 12:03:02
[hometext] => This is a nautical poem...
[bodytext] => The Straits of Madagascar Are not for the novice sailor Not Man-of -War, East India Man Or Nan-tucket Whaler For, lying silent below the foam The Idle Sisters wait On the foolhardy master Who would gamble his vessel's fate Lo! Half a hundred ships or more Have dared this brazen passage Now most lay strewn across the ocean floor In testimony to the Sisters' message A sleek Xebec sails before the wind Tacking daintily through the narrows Her Privateer captain, a daring devil From Cap'n Teach, a trick he borrows For he knows the price of failure Should the race they fail to win it It's a drumhead court before the mast And a trip to the hangman's gibbet In hot pursuit, a mighty seventy-four Hoves swiftly into view Her blackened gun ports opened wide As flames from her bow chasers spew Fluttering atop her main royals With her sails all a-back Is the battle flag Of the haughty Chief of Amorak The Xebec glides o'er the Sisters With nary a foot to spare As her crafty master gives the command For the little ship to wear Her slender bow bites deeper waters Mid the horrified cries astern The seventy-four, lumbering heavily in irons Strikes the Sisters, and the waters churn Ripped from bow to midships The roiling seas invade Slowly the waters drag her off the rocks Pulling her down to a watery grave The screams of the dying ship Send chills through the pirate crew Were it not for the skill of their captain T'would be their wives and lovers Filing into the mourners pew ...an unrelenting sea, and the Sisters silently wait For the next unwary traveler To test his skill, or to greet his fate... Stoney, May 14, 1997 [comments] => 3 [counter] => 143 [topic] => 31 [informant] => Stoney1 [notes] => [ihome] => 0 [alanguage] => english [acomm] => 0 [haspoll] => 0 [pollID] => 0 [score] => 5 [ratings] => 1 [editpoem] => 1 [associated] => [topicname] => StoryPoetry )
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