Holding on As always Never apart Death will not separate us I vow to you, I will always be Near, reach out your Hand, I will take it Always. You are mine and I am yours. Nothing shall change that, Death be damned.
@Morganna: an elegant acrostic, as you always achieve :) I like that both D's are used for Death, with a reiteration of the key sentiment in the poem.
@Marc: well, I knew you wouldn't be entirely keen on an Ilmatu post, so I think I apologised on the succeeding one. Hopefully you slept well! For today I'm revisiting something that was more Protagonise than here, but I think there's been the occasional sighting of the Pink Daffodil on these pages before :)
Hand in hand There had been storm clouds on the horizon for two days now, but the storm seemed to be drawing no closer. The Pink Daffodil, captained by Sandy Bottoms, had dropped anchor in a natural harbour on the north edge of Pirate's island intending to ride the storm out, and the crew were growing restless as they waited for the weather to decide what it was going to do. The decks had been swabbed six times and polished twice and were now dangerously slippery in places. The bilges had been cleaned, the sails had been repaired, the rigging had been checked and re-checked, and even the portholes had been cleaned so thoroughly that the cabins were looking shabby in the unaccustomed sunlight. "Q," said First Mate Bobby Shaftoe. Captain Bottoms looked up from where he was sat in a deckchair (on the deck, naturally) reading a book. "What?" "Q," said Bobby. He sounded marginally less morose than usual, which the Captain put down to him getting extra sunlight. "Pirates traditionally start conversations with 'arrrr', but I wanted to get ahead of the game a little." "Why?" The Captain turned the page and looked at yet another poem. "Good leaders are always one step ahead of the rest of the men," said Bobby. "No, I meant why do we traditionally start conversations with 'arrr'?" "There's a school of thought on that," said Bobby staring across the deck-rail to the distant grey clouds. There was a smell of rotting seaweed drifting around the ship. "And I've got my own theory too." "Of course." "The school of thought says that it's a dialect word," said Bobby. "Gentlemen pirates from Dorset and South-West England used 'arrr' a lot, and 'my lovely' and 'ducks', and it spread like syphilis through the community. So now all three go hand-in-hand: pirates say 'arr', eat duck, and chase lovelies -- a slang word for prostitutes." "Have you ever caught a prostitute, Bobby?" "What?" "Nothing -- never mind. Do go on." Bobby looked at the Captain with a bemused smile. "Well, my theory is that pirates suffer a lot from scurvy and gout," he said. "So we say 'argh' a lot, and it gets misheard." His gaze became focused. "Is that my diary, Captain?" "Yes," said Captain Bottoms. "I was reading this poem about the lovers forced to walk the plank." Bobby's expression shifted, pleasure at the opportunity to talk about his writing fighting with annoyance that the Captain had found his diary again and was reading it. "This bit," said Captain Bottoms, "They walked the length of pine/Hand in hand/Taking their time/Knowing they were damned.... You know we've never had a pine plank, right?" "Coffins are often made of pine," said Bobby. "There's a cultural reference hidden in there." "Hmm," said Captain Bottoms. "You've not forgotten that we're pirates, Bobby?"
Morganna - very impressed that you fit the prompt into an acrostic. Also a big fan of your final line :)
Greg - I enjoy them. In a sort of 'don't make me read about them too often' sort of way :P
And a return to the Pink Daffodil certainly more than makes up for any residual effects of your horror writing! Always a treat to read about their adventures or, in this case, lack of adventures :)
3 comments:
Holding on
As always
Never apart
Death will not separate us
I vow to you, I will always be
Near, reach out your
Hand, I will take it
Always. You are mine and I am yours.
Nothing shall change that,
Death be damned.
@Morganna: an elegant acrostic, as you always achieve :) I like that both D's are used for Death, with a reiteration of the key sentiment in the poem.
@Marc: well, I knew you wouldn't be entirely keen on an Ilmatu post, so I think I apologised on the succeeding one. Hopefully you slept well!
For today I'm revisiting something that was more Protagonise than here, but I think there's been the occasional sighting of the Pink Daffodil on these pages before :)
Hand in hand
There had been storm clouds on the horizon for two days now, but the storm seemed to be drawing no closer. The Pink Daffodil, captained by Sandy Bottoms, had dropped anchor in a natural harbour on the north edge of Pirate's island intending to ride the storm out, and the crew were growing restless as they waited for the weather to decide what it was going to do. The decks had been swabbed six times and polished twice and were now dangerously slippery in places. The bilges had been cleaned, the sails had been repaired, the rigging had been checked and re-checked, and even the portholes had been cleaned so thoroughly that the cabins were looking shabby in the unaccustomed sunlight.
"Q," said First Mate Bobby Shaftoe. Captain Bottoms looked up from where he was sat in a deckchair (on the deck, naturally) reading a book.
"What?"
"Q," said Bobby. He sounded marginally less morose than usual, which the Captain put down to him getting extra sunlight. "Pirates traditionally start conversations with 'arrrr', but I wanted to get ahead of the game a little."
"Why?" The Captain turned the page and looked at yet another poem.
"Good leaders are always one step ahead of the rest of the men," said Bobby.
"No, I meant why do we traditionally start conversations with 'arrr'?"
"There's a school of thought on that," said Bobby staring across the deck-rail to the distant grey clouds. There was a smell of rotting seaweed drifting around the ship. "And I've got my own theory too."
"Of course."
"The school of thought says that it's a dialect word," said Bobby. "Gentlemen pirates from Dorset and South-West England used 'arrr' a lot, and 'my lovely' and 'ducks', and it spread like syphilis through the community. So now all three go hand-in-hand: pirates say 'arr', eat duck, and chase lovelies -- a slang word for prostitutes."
"Have you ever caught a prostitute, Bobby?"
"What?"
"Nothing -- never mind. Do go on."
Bobby looked at the Captain with a bemused smile. "Well, my theory is that pirates suffer a lot from scurvy and gout," he said. "So we say 'argh' a lot, and it gets misheard." His gaze became focused. "Is that my diary, Captain?"
"Yes," said Captain Bottoms. "I was reading this poem about the lovers forced to walk the plank."
Bobby's expression shifted, pleasure at the opportunity to talk about his writing fighting with annoyance that the Captain had found his diary again and was reading it.
"This bit," said Captain Bottoms, "They walked the length of pine/Hand in hand/Taking their time/Knowing they were damned.... You know we've never had a pine plank, right?"
"Coffins are often made of pine," said Bobby. "There's a cultural reference hidden in there."
"Hmm," said Captain Bottoms. "You've not forgotten that we're pirates, Bobby?"
Morganna - very impressed that you fit the prompt into an acrostic. Also a big fan of your final line :)
Greg - I enjoy them. In a sort of 'don't make me read about them too often' sort of way :P
And a return to the Pink Daffodil certainly more than makes up for any residual effects of your horror writing! Always a treat to read about their adventures or, in this case, lack of adventures :)
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