How Long Have You Been a Sailor ?


All my bloomin' life.
Me mother was a mermaid.
Me father was King Neptune.
I was born on the crest of a wave
And rocked in the cradle of the deep.
Seaweed and barnacles are me clothes,
Every tooth in me head is a marlinspike,
The hair on me head is hemp,
Every bone in me body's a spar,
And when I spits, I spits tar.
I'se hard, I is, I am, I are.

--- an Old Answer to an Old Question

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