White Dove

White dove over troubled waters, she flew into the morn As sun surfaced over sails lit the wreckage of midnights storm. A tiny dot upon the waves, shackled to a beam. The condemned man has survived against all odds t’would seem. And as Jacks battered face awakes, head held above the wave, By the broken beams that held him bound held him as a knave. God granted him, above the rest, for he saw no other signs of life And that filthy captain who locked him here while he took his wife. For Mable was a pretty thing and just barley seventeen When they left their land for better things or that’s how it might have been. But the captain offered finer things than a man like him could do Who only had his hands and wit and hopes and big dreams too. Fancy ways and fine clothes, a place at the captains table Were things he could not offer yet, to that lovely Mabel. So the captain sent the guards one night accusing him of treason And sentenced him to hang on shore, there was no way to reason. His wife of only a few weeks turned her face away With eyes that sought the finery offered her that day. But fate had shown a different hand as the storm blew down that night And battered in the sails and mast and pounded them all right. Death was the fate of all the crew who took part in that scheme To rob a man of his dear wife, cheat him of his dream Of living free on a new land in peace and prosperity To have a wife who loved him dear and a family. After a time his makeshift raft, which was his fate before Floated peacefully to land upon a sandy distant shore. A lovely maiden dark as night saw him as he staggered Trying to stand on unsteady feet, all wet, and worn and haggard. She called to her father, “He has come!” In a language he didn’t know But the meaning soon was very clear as the later days would show. It seems she dreamed of a fair man who would come to her land She told her father, who was chief of this peaceful little band. Her Mother told her she must wait until her love arrived And if he made it to the land, and if he survived. He would be welcomed into the band, would be accepted there Would wed the daughter of the chief and live as the chiefs heir. So Mable lays beneath the sea with her captains bones and gold. And Jack he lived the life of ease, and in peace he grew old. A few generations passed until those Ships came again And they wondered at the blue eyes of the chief and his men.