SEA STUFF

Now I’m a soldier, so I ain’t

No hand at art, but say,

There’s things at sea I’d like to paint

Before I’m tucked away.

A cruiser on the sunrise track,

Alert to find the morn,

With every funnel belching black

Into the red, gold dawn;

A flock o’ transports, crazy lined,

On blue-green waves advance,

That sink their bows, all spray an’ dewed,

Hellbootin’ it for France;

A manned gun peerin’ out to port

As evenin’ shadows close;

Beyond, a ship slipped up an’ caught

Against a cloud o’ rose;

A crow’s nest loomin’ from below

Across the Milk Way’s bars,

Just like a cradle rockin’ slow,

An’ sung to by the stars.

No, I can’t paint the things I’ve seen

While we were passin’ by,

But, all the same, they sure have been

Worth lookin’ at, say I.

Steuart M. Emery, Pvt., M.P.