Pirates' Signature

The pirates come with torches alight
To burn the village, disrupt the night.
Throughout the town screams echo and ring,
The pirates take joy in the song pain sings.

They spare no thought for the death of men
The fate of the woman, the life within.
Through the chaos they swiftly go
To leave their sign, a mark of woe.

When the fires quiet and cinders cool
They take more than they need, a twisted rule.
The charred and lifeless bodies stare
The resonant pain a tainted air.

In the light of the new and dawning day
The pirates board ship and sail away.
When finally the white of their sail is gone
The survivors wail their grief to the dawn.

In the years after the town is rebuilt
No one remembers the pirates’ assault.
But the pirates’ song of pain still rings
In silent graves and bloody springs.

A Storm

grey water
black sky
blood red streaks of fading day
contrast with the stark white sail
familiar overcast
and blue horizon
replaced by driving rain
an absence of light
like a sinister black sun
no lightning
but in the waves is thunder
thunder like a thousand hounds
chasing a frightened doe
but the waves are more merciless than hounds
the ship more vulnerable than the doe
timbers creak
men are swept off the deck
like wooden children’s toys
to sink to a cold, wet death
in the belly of the beast
foolishly thought tamed
a cold, wet, terror-filled death
an eerie parallel
to the cold, wet, terror-filled life
known moments before
the insatiable waves beat the ship
the mast snaps and falls
with incongruous grace
the ship shudders and sinks
the last of the crew
join their comrades
and the waves calm
their prize claimed
as the black sun watches
the bloody streaks now part of the water
the gray water