The Way To Davy Jones Locker (On Dry Land)
The Way To Davy Jones Locker (Even On Dry Land)
Scull it all–
row row your boat,
never trusting
fate-willed float.
Bind your spine.
Cast off bend.
Steer your steeled keel
here to when.
Thresh the currents–
chop chop chop;
bail seeped null
without stop.
Flesh may melt;
bone holds on,
knotted digits
gripping yon.
Though waves are big
and we are small,
though even stars
hear orbits’ call,
locked in salt,
these oars we pull–
scuttled, scuttling,
sculling all.
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Here’s a rather weird take on Margaret Bednar’s prompt on With Real Toads to write a skeletal poem or a poem inspired by skeletons/fossils. Margaret has some great pictures on With Real Toads but the above is my own drawing. All rights reserved.
PS I have changed the title since first posting.
Explore posts in the same categories: poetryTags: go with the flow! ha! poem, manicddaily, no effort like constant effort poem, oar locks in salt, scull it all, skeletal poem, way to Davy Jone's Locker
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ManicDDaily 
August 9, 2014 at 8:36 pm
yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me…
nice cadence to this one k…betcha theres more than a few skeltons
in that locker…
August 9, 2014 at 8:37 pm
Ha. I’m not sure the title is quite right– but thanks! k.
August 10, 2014 at 2:12 am
An excellent sea shanty! The rhythm is jolly but the content belies the good humour. We are all of us sculling the uncertain oceans, and attempting to remain afloat in desperate times.
August 10, 2014 at 3:35 am
you know…the good thing about skeletons is that they cannot get sunburnt any more… cool pic k.
August 10, 2014 at 7:30 am
I love the rhytmn of your poem and your charming illustration, too! 🙂
August 10, 2014 at 8:03 am
This reads like a twisted shanty to me.. I wish to have it set to melody with a barrel of rhum
August 10, 2014 at 8:05 am
Ha! Thanks, Bjorn.
On Sun, Aug 10, 2014 at 9:03 AM, ManicDDaily wrote:
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August 10, 2014 at 5:09 pm
Love the alliteration in those final two lines esp 🙂
August 11, 2014 at 10:20 am
Very deep, and smooth delivery… it offers so much to ponder. We shall overcome. No wave too strong!
August 12, 2014 at 6:55 am
Hey Karen, Thanks. I would be happy to visit your blog if you would send me the link. k.
August 11, 2014 at 12:20 pm
a skeletal rhyme: jump-rope skeletons, as it were ~
August 11, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Ha. Yes.
August 11, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Visions of Johnny Depp! 🙂
August 11, 2014 at 5:25 pm
Life feels like that sometimes, the sculling locked in place but moving to the rhythm and sound and passion just the same.
August 12, 2014 at 4:10 am
Wowser, loved it. The story of Davy Jones’ locker at the bottom of the sea (with its closet stuffed with the bones of drowned sailors) is such a metaphor for Going Down, as we all mortally must do. The fight to stay on the buoyant surface is incessant; we “bale seeped null” (“bail”?), pulling on the oars as we go down down down. Great lead pic, perfect poem for the challenge.
August 12, 2014 at 6:44 am
Thank you , Brandan. I do mean bail. I had bale in mind because of the threshing! Thanks for you kind comment. k.
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August 12, 2014 at 5:04 am
Life’s journey and we have to keep rowing
August 12, 2014 at 10:09 am
Love the phrase Brendan quoted, and also the cadence, and the sense of how so much of our journey is merely rote labor–maybe because if we stop to think it is too overwhelming a trip, r maybe because we need those oars to hold on to. ‘..scuttled, scuttling and sculling a great combination as well as binding the spine, and so many other linguistic flourishes that prod thought and emotion into shape.
August 12, 2014 at 10:45 am
Hey Joy! Nice to see you! I am sculling rather wretchedly along over on this coast. Dry land dry land everywhere and not a spot to place anchor!
K.
On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 11:09 AM, ManicDDaily wrote:
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August 13, 2014 at 5:43 am
love it, especially the title and this:
Flesh may melt;
bone holds on.
true, true.
August 13, 2014 at 8:53 am
Thanks.
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September 14, 2014 at 11:37 am
“scull it all” might become a new phrase for me. Thanks for participating and sorry it took me so long to make the rounds.
Yes, this needs a bit of rum to go with it 🙂