The Vicious Circle

Day twenty nine and the rum had run out
I woke up in the hold with the driest of mouths
In a dress made of lace and a pain in my arse
I recalled being tied to the foot of the mast

Then recoiled at the thought of the cabin boys fate
There were sharks off the bough so we used him as bait
And his screams as the fiends shredded meat from his chops
Made us laugh as the wrack broke our ship on the rocks

Oh we sobbed at the sight of the splintering hull
And the Island we hit had no trace of a pub
But the galley was sure they could whip something up
From the Amazon grapes and acacia pulp

For a week we survived on the memory of grog
Till the juice of the fruit was fermented and strong
For a while we were glad to be rid of the shakes
But the madness crept into our camp like a snake

I awoke in the night to the carpenters screams
He was taking an axe to a coconut tree
When I asked why the hell he was the carving the bark
He said God had asked him to assemble an ark

I was moments away from expressing my doubt
When I heard the faint sound of the sail maker shout

We are dirt!
We are cursed!
This is death!
This is dream!
There's a devil out there and he's coming for me!

As the camp came alive in a babble of tongues
I reached into my boot and I loaded my gun
Then assured the poor soul he had nothing to fear
Till I realised the man had been dead for a year

I remember the beasts and the flickering flames
I remember the blood that I licked from my plate
I remember the flesh that I tore with my nails
To the cries of the damned and the singing of whales

It was weeks before they saw the plume of the smoke
From the crosses that lit every inch of the coast
As they wandered ashore a few sailors threw up
At the sight of the pikes and the heads on the top

They found me in the caves building chairs out of bones
I was hit on the head and dragged off to the hold
I was told I'd be hanged when they docked into port
And I longed for the drop and the snap of the rope

But the boat had got lost in the mists of the sea
They had eaten the biscuits and drank all the tea.
Then from high up on deck I heard somebody shout
It is day twenty nine and the rum has run out ...