Barkevious Mingo
(for Carly, who probably regrets mentioning it)
we sailed all the night through the inkiest black
with the salt spray afore us and wind at our back
but our maps we had lost from our traveling sack
oh where does this thing go,
Barkevious Mingo?
we’d lost all our money at hard games of chance
been forced by some gunfire ungainly to dance
and then we’d been chased at the point of a lance
oh where does this thing go,
Barkevious Mingo?
yet now as we rounded the Cape of Good Hope
we began once again to come out of our mope
for our captain, it seemed, was good friends with the Pope
oh where does this thing go,
Barkevious Mingo?
ahead as the sun rose from out of the sea
a chorus of angels there happened to be
they had Google Maps and a kettle of tea
oh where does this thing go,
Barkevious Mingo?
we knocked back the steaming hot cups of Earl Gray
and turned ’round our craft to face the new day
we were saved! till we hit all those rocks in the bay
now with angels we sing, oh
Barkevious Mingo!
7 October 2012
State College, PA
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My friend Carly mentioned an LSU football player with the wonderful name Barkevious Mingo. How could I not write a poem? This is my first, and probably last, rhyming poem about pirates. Note: The part of the dread pirate Barkevious in the photo is played by my son John.
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