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Saltee Tango

Heave away on the poop deck.
We're shipwrecked.
We're washed up on the sand,
We're dried out on the strand.
We're accustomed to defeat boys,
So we'll eat boys and
We'll drink our fill and then
We'll go to sea again.
Promises of fortune or of fame
Are not what keep us in this game
Our losses swallow up our gains.
So with the old crew and
A new plan
We'll gather on the shore
And go to sea once more.

What is it? What is it? That calls us all out here
Without sextant without compass a-squandering our years.
The ocean swarms and heaves and we are frozen to the bone
And Davy Jones' Locker is beckoning below.
Bail away, me boys, bail away.
This storm won't last forever but there's more on the way.

A clear sky and a fair wind, a clean and rolling sea -
Greater joys than these are inconceivable to me.
But other occupations must yield pleasures of their own
The butcher and the cobbler seem contented in the town
Safe and dry in bed each night, tucked up snugly with their wives -
Are they or I more satisfied?
Who knows?
Not I.

I suppose when I was still young
I lived among
My family in their home
Far from the waves and foam.
But now my memory's faded
I've a grey head
And that time it seems
As if it was a dream.