This is an original work of poetry written under the pseudonym Mac O'Roni. All rights reserved. Please do not copy or archive without the author's express permission.

Yes, I'm well aware that this poem is hardly accurate in terms of actual longshore activity. Partly this is due to the fact that I'm a landlubbin' Iowan, and know NOTHING about the sea. But mostly this is because I flubbed some things in order to get a specific rhythm and rhyme scheme. Don't worry: I have a literary license. >>>giggle<<<



Paper Airplane

Mac O'Roni


Four More Names

It sure ain’t easy when you work for a living,
The way the longshoremen do.
Risking your life for a dollar a pound,
With a baby and the mortgage due.

You cast your nets and you haul your lines,
And you pray that the weather will hold.
Then a gale wind comes down and the sea gets rough,
And the end of your story is left untold.

And they stand on the shore, and they look to the sea,
And they offer a prayer for them all,
And the tears fill their eyes, and the church bells chime,
And they’ll write four more names on the wall.

Another coffin in the cold, dark ground,
With nothing and no one inside.
Nobody knows what your last words are,
Nobody saw the tears that you cried.

“God bless my mother and my father too,
My wife and kids most of all.
When my son’s grown let him live inland,
Don’t let his join my name upon the wall.”

And they stand on the shore, and they look to the sea,
And they offer a prayer for them all,
And the tears fill their eyes, and the church bells chime,
And they’ll write four more names on the wall.



Home