The Barbary Coast

As I young man I rolled on the waves of the sea

from the halls of Montezuma to old Tripoli

With a cavalier crew of rogue sailors and salts

I lived life on the lash and lashed out at the Gods

Every whore in the port all the gold in the vaults

couldn't temper my thirst or rebuke my assault

I was lost in the blue with a mouthful of brag

and my heart was as black as the pitch of our flag

But the rum and the guns kept my conscience at bay

I'd no need to believe and no soul left to save

Then one day I awoke as the cruel sun arose

and shone light through the dark of the Barbary Coast.

I've seen monsters and whales

I've scrubbed blood from the sails

and watched cannon balls smash into sailors

When your sickness is sin feed the devil within

or the angels will sing of your murders.

For a life and a day I was bane to my pray

as I butchered my way to bordellos

With a mutinous crew just a whisky or two

from a death by the plank or the gallows.

Any snatch in a storm, any jewel in the port

we would raid and then vanish like ghosts

Faraway from the grind of the field and the mine

raising hell on the Barbary coast.

All the harlots of Sodom were no match for the Madame

of the brothel Les Quatre cents coup

For a few spanish silver she'd do what you told her

and I've been a beast in her room.

She had kids by the dozen to her butcher and cousin

and the sea dogs that howled as they savaged.

I've been guilty myself of defiling her purse

but she suffered no permanent damage.

In the midst of this squalor I remember my mother

and I raise up my beer glass to toast.

All the sons who are slaves to the wind and the waves

and the girls of the Barbary Coast.

I would lie if I said that I missed my old life

killing men for a King and the blue red and white

As a soldier I fought in the royalties wars

knowing I was to die for a meaningless cause

And although I'm now wracked by the drink and the drag

I salute to no general, I follow no flag,

All the flogs and the blows I've endured from the state

left me battered and bloodied and boiling with hate

So I sailed out to sea to escape from the Storm

but the thunder will find me again before long

In a bar faraway from my place and my post

In the depths of the dark of the Barbary Coast.

Copyright © Lee Cassanell 2010