these old bones

Ahoy there mates now cup your ear

Or my voice you may nary hear

Years took a hardy toll on me

My throat so hoarse and gurgle’y

Just heed my words, I warn you all

If in love with riches you fall

A treasure hunter call him Rich

Made good bounty without a hitch

But greed with him did play its game

Rich longed to live up to his name

A seasoned boatman learn’d was he

In things atop and below sea

The diver of a rare order

‘Twas his, what laid to rest in water

Rich had mastered a certain craft

Raiding sunken ships fore to aft

He had a sturdy crew of two

First mate Douglas second mate Lou

And one night under a full moon

The three set course for one Doubloon

So rare a coin it would, my friends

Make any diver risk the bends

The Winged Gryphon Gold Doubloon

Head bore a creature, tale a rune

Legend says in Spain ‘twas pressed

At a famous Viscount’s behest

Taken ‘board a Spanish barque

To the viscount it did embark

But ne’er did reach its destined port

For the barque’s journey was cut short

Broadsided by a brigantine

Red letters spelling “Libertine”

On the Libertine’s bow did stand

A one-eyed scourge, hook for a hand

The scuffle brief, the barque surrendered

Its cargo pillaged, cabins plundered

The Libertine’s Captain, Vern Rhode

Surveyed the spoils his crew did load

But his one eye did spy small gold

In a dying mate’s stubborn hold

Vern pried the coin from the mate’s grip

And cross his neck Vern’s hook did rip

Vern heard tell of its origin
This coin that shimmered in the sun

Knowing full well it had no match

Vern lifted up his black eyepatch

Vowing would ne’er let out his sight

In his eye hole he fixed it tight

Eyepatch lowed, the coin turned legend

For none but Vern e’er saw it again

Vern and his crew sailed on that day

Stealing, killing bay by bay

But pirates’ lives come to their ends

Their ships to the deep Triton sends

During an island hurricane

The Libertine went down the drain

And that’s where Rich’s tale began

Old books and maps inspired the man

To find the sunken Libertine

And the rare Doubloon found within

A detail Rich did untangle

“Vern’s in the Devil’s Triangle!”

Upon his boat the three men went

To the feared triangle, hellbent

Doug the pilot steered round and round

Pulsing sonar pointed straight down

Lou was the tech and recognized

The large hull of a wreck capsized

Feeling this was his lucky night

Rich donned his gear, plunged out of sight

His flashlight piercing the pitch dark

Didn’t pause at a passing shark

Down and down the depths he swam

“Screw these sharks I don’t give a damn!”

Too long nothing in Rich’s beam

Til it found something from a dream

The hull swelled from the ocean floor

Battered wood barnacles galore

On the bow the best sight he’d seen

In faded crimson: “Libertine”

For the riches that Rich would earn

Twas worth that long search, stem to stern

Tired and low on oxygen

Rich was about to give up- then

Stumbled ‘pon the captain’s quarters

Stuffed ‘twas- Vern King of the Hoarders

Beneath a mound of useless scrap

Rich dug up the old Captain’s cap!

And under that the corpse’s skull

Its eyepatch upward Rich did pull

In the socket, bright as the moon

The Winged Gryphon Gold Doubloon

With a small tug the coin came free

“Too easy…” laughed Rich greedily

Then pulled his breathing tube right out

And put the Doubloon in his mouth

Gulped hard, his salty swallow took

The coin where no one would dare look

Back up he went, not looking back

At Vern’s remains, in the pitch black

Had Rich looked he’d let out a scream

For Vern’s form woke, as from a dream

Now the wasted waterlogged corpse

Began to shimmy backwards and forth

Animated by some foul force

Moved to and fro and out of course

Till from it’s cocoon of debris

It emerged and stood fin’lly free

Vern’s skull tilted toward the moonlight 

At Rich swimming up, out of sight

‘Board his boat Rich told Doug and Lou

“Plenty down there of some value

But no sign of that rare Doubloon

We’ll try again tomorrow noon”

See he had all things quite planned out

They’d all have wee treasure no doubt

But he would keep the coin himself

For a time or two show no one else

Right now the coin was safe and sound

Deep within his guts ‘twas bound

The men readied to head ashore

Loud clanking shocked them to the core

Below, the surface had been broached

Up the ladder someone approached

Stunned they all were how could this be?

'Twas none else there besides the sea

The three prepared to be boarded

But not by something so morbid

Lou grabbed a spear, froze in his place

When the figure rose without a face

A barnacled skeleton which

Wore an up-raised black eyepatch

It thumped a seaweed ridden foot

Onto the deck and round it looked

Lou could not move as it climbed ‘board

And when it lunged Lou just yelped “Lord…”

In stark horror watched Rich and Doug

As into Lou’s gut its boned hand dug

Defenseless Lou spat up fresh gore

As his innards spilled on the floor

While Doug went for the flare gun now

Rich turned his back before the “pow!”

He knew the undead thing still stood

Could hear the spatter of Doug’s blood

Vern’s hook dragged so deep ‘neath Doug’s jaw

His head attached by vertebra

Rich would not wait for certain end

Jumped in the motored dinghy then

Started the raft and took off fast

Behind him he heard a huge blast!

The flare from Doug’s gun had lighted

A tank of gas, which ignited

A smile crossed Rich’s greedy brow

No one to share all riches now!

He’d sell his coin be set for good

And in his way nobody stood

But a sudden sputter caused doubt

Like Rich’s luck the gas run'd out

To make things worse, Rich leaned to look

At the motor and saw the hook

Buried in the rear of the raft

Air escaping the hole it left

Vern’s skeleton came for the ride

And now Rich had nowhere to hide

The undead corpse sprang up on Rich

What happened next may make you retch

One boned hand took his lower jaw

The hook stabbed the roof of his maw

The corpse pulled til to Rich’s shock

His jaw broke off, thrown to the sharks!

Helpless, jawless Rich blinked in pain

The worst was yet to come. And came.

The bony hand ripped out his tongue

Then down his windpipe it did plunge

Tearing down into Rich’s guts

Finding its prize in his stomach

The skeleton pulled viciously

Rich’s insides spilled outwardly

The skeleton’s fingers now pinched

The Doubloon in Rich’s blood drenched

Rich, still alive, with fading breath

Begged the skull to grant him his death

Vern’s skeleton replaced the coin

In his eye socket, pulled the patch down

Then jumped off back into the sea

Let Rich sink slow in the dinghy

The sharks circled smelling fresh blood

Soon Rich’s tale would end for good

The undead thing hit the sea’s floor

Shambled back home to roam no more

Back in the Libertine it lay

And remains to this very day...

So treasure hunters hear me well

If on that Doubloon you do dwell

Steer clear of this wreck do not test

My sleep, these old bones need to rest