A/N :
I have been enticed over to this fandom by nytd and her excellent story, "A Study in Rum". I have not written anything for Pot C before. This is a slightly different approach to "The Curse of the Black Pearl" in narrative verse, 3 chapters in all.
Many thanks to nytd for advice, encouragement and title suggestion :)
The title is a quote by Tom Stoppard.
Any mistakes are my own.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Pirates of the Caribbean, nor do I make any money out of playing with them.
Spoilers : for "The Curse of the Black Pearl " (quite a lot of spoilers.)
Part 1
A sailing ship,
Jamaica bound.
A tragedy
At sea.
A boy adrift with pirate gold,
A young girl's calm decision.
The gold now safely round her neck,
His pirate links concealed.
A glimpse of masts and pirate flag,
A ghostly apparition.
A pirate bold,
A buccaneer,
A renegade,
A rogue.
A master of that ancient trade
Which plagues the seven oceans.
A firmly held philosophy
Of self above all else,
With no responsibility
Or altruistic notions.
A blacksmith lad,
A love-sick swain,
An orphaned child,
Alone.
A craftsman of the finest kind
With noble aspirations.
His eyes on something brighter
Than a future in the forge,
But hampered by his lack
Of pedigree and known relations.
A governor's girl,
A maiden fair,
Her father's pride
And joy.
Compelled to follow dutifully
Society's conventions.
But underneath the strait-laced clothes,
And prim demure façade,
She's yearning for a future
Of less lady-like dimensions.
A pirate ship,
A treasure chest,
An ancient map,
A curse.
A story filled with basic greed,
Revenge and double dealing.
Condemned to spend eternity
Upon the ocean waves,
With just a distant memory
Of hope and human feeling.
A simple, yet
Rewarding life,
A ship to call
His own.
Content to roam where circumstance,
And tide and fate decided.
No complicated loyalties
Until one fateful day,
When blacksmith, ancient pirate curse,
And governor's girl collided.
A bodice tightened
Far too much,
A fall in to
The sea.
The weight of layers of petticoats
Ensures complete submersion.
The pirate sailing close at hand
Who finds he can't ignore
The unexpected urge to make
A chivalrous diversion.
With dripping walls
Of cold dank stone,
And iron bars;
A jail.
A strange reward for rescuing
The governor's precious daughter.
Although quite used to dealing with
Odd twists and turns of fate,
If faced with such a choice again
He'd leave her in the water.
A missing piece
Of Aztec gold,
The pendant round
Her neck.
A pirate raid one stormy night,
Which ends in her abduction.
The blacksmith and the pirate forced
To seek some common ground.
Her rescue (and the pirate's plans)
Require a joint production.
As moonlight streams
Upon the deck,
All flesh dissolves
To bone.
She sees the ancient Aztec curse
In all its dreadful glory.
The crew exist as ghosts of men,
Eternally decayed,
Unless the final missing piece
Can end their endless story.
to be continued...