A Pirate's Redemption

Fishers fish and merchants drift But pirates lurk and seek to sift They show their wealth with coins they spit While honest men give honest gifts A fletcher rises with the day His arrows up and sailed away The hunters come, and simply say There's cheaper arrows at pirate-bay The fletcher fletched to get the price To fetch a necklace for his wife No sparkle where it laid to rest Inside a buried pirate chest Soon pirate Jack dug back to air That necklace for his maiden fair Who swore she'd wear it for all time But pawned it for a jug of wine And rallying to every lord Was every peasant with a sword So angry from the thefts of late They yearned to give these thieves a face The pirate leaders reasoned that The best one to give up was Jack Who stole one necklace, just one time The perfect scapegoat for their crimes As he was ferried to the shore The mob let out an angry roar His downcast eyes could barely see The guards that kicked him to his feet When sight returned he saw a structure A gallows, it could be no other He thought, dear God, this can't be real Whos bloody necklace did I steal In mock accordance with the law A trial was held to find just cause Somehow his sins were multiplied As one by one they testified You bloody stinking thieving rat You stole my dying brothers cap You rotten mellon of a man How could you steal my mothers jam You two bit dim wit squirt of pus Why can't you work like all of us You stole my pension chest from me You evil seagul from the sea When midday sun was getting hot The longnose magistrate was wroth He said to Jack, for all these crimes You don't feel bad, now tell me why And Jack said this is fallacy It's you today who steal from me Your going to snap my neck you horse And I'm supposed to feel remorse? The Fletcher rubbed his tired eyes Where from the trees he watched and cried An oath his wife had made him take No man would die for jewels today He cried an angry battle roar He cleared the trees and drew his sword Screamed I will bleed and swear by it Of all these crimes he's innocent The magistrate jumped to his feet Commanding that this man be seized But far too many fighting men Jumped guards to save their fletching friend The clumsy fleeing magistrate Left threats of torture in his wake Swore every man who stood for Jack Would scream for mercy on the rack The fletcher looked around a bit And said, well fellows, this is it Go kiss your families, say goodbye We're pirates now until we die!