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Captain Nate Part 2

Aye aye, said the captain, who spoke to his mate,
The very same mate, who choked on his plate,
A young pirate laddie, with one common trait,
A rabid distaste for the food which he ate.

Oh how can I rate, that cunning Miss Tate,
Who called for the mutiny that finished my fate,
She said I was handsome, she said I was great,
Oh why did  I pick her to be my first mate.

My dear pirate captain, or Mooney of late,
I hear what you say when you speak of your date,
I’m sorry to hear of the facts that you state,
But supper is through, and my duties won’t wait.

Then Mooney was struck by the blow to his fate,
And he poked in the muck of the mess on his plate,
And he mourned his bad luck, which he laid on Miss Tate,
For the kind of a schmuck that he played on their date.

He longed for the day when they said he was great,
For the battles he led and the grub that he ate,
For the mother who cried when his carriage was late,
And the brother who lied when defending his mate.

He thought of the fun of his pirate ship days,
And the ships that he sank in a cannonball’s blaze,
Of the force of the wind and the rain on his ship,
And the roll of the waves in the pride of his trip.

Now the lot of the pirates who cherished his gloom,
Were surprised by the cries of the man in the room,
And they stopped for a bit as they looked on his face,
And they said the old man was a silly disgrace.

But the captain was drinking and starting to babble,
And he looked like a crook in the thick of his rabble,
His hair was unkempt and a light, shaggy grey,
With a long, saggy beard that was longer each day.

In his face were the eyes of a man who is lost,
Who is finally freed by the fact he is bossed,
And he cries for the Captain, who stands up to say,
That our dear Captain Nate is much better today.

But in spite of her words and the love that she gave,
To the shaggy old man she was trying to save,
She was helpless to part with the keys that she wore,
And the trust of the crew that was missing before.

Then our old Captain Nate had a vision of late,
A vision that grew by the new Captain Tate,
He flung his old plate in the ocean at last,
Just to say in his way, he was free of the past,

And to prove that his vision was honest and true,
He departed the ship and the life that he knew,
And to prove to Miss Tate that his notion was good,
He taught the young pirates to pray as they should.

Copyright © Bryan Norton | Year Posted 2024

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