Steph Saunders
The hatches safely battened down;
in the light of the soot-blackened lamp,
they attended to what passes for foreplay between pirates.
Their black hats with the skull-and-crossbones,
were carefully shelved. The eye patches stayed in place.
They helped one-another unbuckle
their swords and sidearms. She insisted he remove
the cutlass from between his teeth, before he kissed her.
His parrot was jealous, and bit her ear and had to be
un-shouldered, caged and covered.
He slowly unscrewed his hook-hand, so needed help
to remove his wooden leg; something he seldom did,
but she likened it to going to bed in his boots.
At first, she seemed distracted by the tattoo on his chest,
of a ship, in full sail, flying the Jolly Roger, and what
looked like a large barnacle beneath it
but after a few barrels of rum, they were lustfully engaged
in extra-marital combat. Afterwards,
repeating what his parrot had been saying
all along, from under the cover, all he could say was
“Yo ho ho!”
Featured at The Red Wheelbarrow on 2 August 2022