Disclaimer: Of the people mentioned in this poem, none of them are mine. Much as I might like for the captain to be mine, he's not, and I'll return him to those who do own him in much the same shape I borrowed him in.
Author's Note: Please send reviews to my e-mail: captainisabellaraven@yahoo.com. Thanks!
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The Sea's Crown Jewel
The port town sleeping quiet
As infamy's child by the dockside comes
Slipping through dark shadows
His feet rolling as on the deck still
His hands uncommonly quiet
Though his eyes gleam with laughter
Traced about with the night sky
Quiet as the stars gleaming bright
Infamy's child dips through a door
Into the muted red glow and heat
Like the hell the clerics teach
But not this place, not this time
Where friends wait with warm welcome
A brave woman and one good man
A drink of sweet, dark intoxication
Voices sitting around in dim lights
A child's piercing cry of hunger,
Gently shushed by a delicate hand
Before a question asked of infamy's child
To which a smile spreads in surprise
And a voice replies 'Aye'
Tomorrow comes the time to be
In the light of a summer's heated day
Seen about the port town
Infamy's child to walk the crowded street
Safe from the steel of royal might
But one day for one good man
The hand of death shall be stayed
In the rainbow of Heaven's own light
Stands the brave woman with her cascade
Of dark-haired and dark-eyed delight
The one good man standing at her side
Beckoning forward infamy's child
Who stands on the edge, suddenly unsure
Of the steel of royal might also there
'Safe passage but a day' is what he hears
And he steps inside the rainbow lights
Looking down to see a cooing girl-child
'What name' asks the servant of Light
And in reply is given 'Jacqueline'
Infamy's child smiles, to the jewel of the sea
A name most will know for whom was given
Once again leaving the port town in day
Goes infamy's child with a light heart
His lover firm beneath his rolling feet
His mistress spread to the horizon wide
A whistled tune haunts the filling sails
And drifts back to one good man,
His brave woman and the sea's crown jewel