I learned a new song a while ago,
But I'm not quite certain the way it would go
If I tried to hum a few bars today.

It was quite a number, this alluring tune,
which made moon-lit midnight from hot afternoon
With the goal my direction to sway.

To call it a song nobody knows
Is to totally disregard my men and my woes,
And it makes us all out to be liars.

We resent being made to look like old fools
Who resort out of boredom to break old sea-rules
Of not selling tall tales if there's buyers.

We would never try such a trick as that;
It's not like we said the world wasn't flat,
And we had sailed it up-side-down;

It isn't as if a gigantic gale
Blew us into the mouth of a whale,
Spit us out, and left us to drown!

This was just a song heard on the ocean
Which caused a fair deal of commotion
Among an honest crew I've known for years.

Trust me when I say it is not so easy
Being tied to the mast can make one quite queasy,
And it hurts to put wax in your ears.

It was hard work becoming the only one
To hear the old song and not succumb
So I think it at least deserves mention.

It's rude to omit the one man who has heard
The song from the half woman, half bird
And I pray it was not Margaret's intention.

By
Dan Wolkow

Copyright 1997 Dan Wolkow