The King of Telling Tales

Grandad was a sea dog, Who'd sailed the seven seas. He told of his adventures As we sat around his knees. He told of a giant octopus With tentacles aplenty, We cried "how many grandad," He said "I reckon twenty." He said it had one giant eye And a sharp and deadly beak, And what it did to sailors Was too horrible to speak. Then there was the enormous shark That could bite a ship in two, Once everyone fell overboard The shark would eat the crew. He saw ghostly pirate ships Crewed by pirates, long since dead Just skeletons, armed to the teeth Waving swords about their heads. He said he'd swam with mermaids And wrestled with a squid, Then danced the conga with an eel That's what my grandad did. We loved to listen to grandad And the adventures he regaled, Not only was he a sea dog, But the king, of telling tales.