HMS Joe
“A sentence that felt like pulling a bumpy chain out of your mouth.”
To wit—”Pass the link along if you like.”
HMS Joe ‘er anchor’d slipped ‘long many a distant shore,
From safe roads ‘ere to far Shang’i,
Where soften’d oar did save us once from frightful Chinee wrath,
And darkling moon vouchsaf’d us path t’ richly shinin’ Indie.
Easterin’ then did lovely Joe outpace pursuers all,
ran swift and hard ‘fore Christy winds, all horizon by,
‘til out the dawn rose sudden tall,
a line ship name Bahá’i—
“Dump ‘er cargo, run the guns, e’ry man t’ station!”
our Master scree’d, his eye a-bulge at thousand yard o’ billow
soon quick abeam our pitchin’ Joe, our Doom upon us certain,
‘is sky a vasty oneness …
Taken prize, fast tether’d to Bahá’i, we swept to’rd ancient Perzhee,
whence song we later forth did sing of all for all as ‘came ‘e.