THE TALE OF THE PIRATE’S GLEN

Those who like to scare and dare

Say that on certain foggy nights,

Pirates will return

To the glen in the woods

To dance and fight around

Their pirate treasure hoard

And sing their pirate chant,

“Yo Ho! Yo Ho!”

One summer night

As the fog horns in the bay

Began their wailful moan,

A young boy left his bed

To travel into the forest.

There he climbed a tree

At the edge of the glen

To see if the tales were true.

The sea mist, like the tide,

Slid across the glen

And into the trees beyond.

Then the clouds rose

And boiled like the ocean

Waves that crashed off shore.

When nothing could be seen

Of the empty grassy floor,

Small lights appeared

In the trees, bobbing

Like lanterns carried,

Until they entered the glen

And circled around

One, two, three, perhaps

Five in all arranged in a circle.

Then in the center, shadows

Began to move; though indistinct

They resembled men gathered there.

Into the silence came the clinking

Of coins and the clashing of metal

As the faint moonlight flashed

Upon the circle as if on a cutlasses raised.

As the reflected slices of light

Circled around the glen,

There came another sound

Low, from deep within the earth.

It was the pirate’s chant:

“Yo Ho! Yo Ho!”

The boy could not remember

Afterward how long he watched

From his perch high in a tree.

But his clothes began damply

Clinging to his skin and he began

To quiver with the cold

(or fear or both)

Before the fog slid down the trees

And sifted back the way it had come

As though called by the sea away.

The small and eerie lights

Followed the receding gray mist

Down the path to the coast

And drifting back came echoes

Of the pirate chant:

“Yo Ho! Yo Ho!”

Clambering down to the ground,

The boy searched the glen

For evidence of the pirates—

But there was none.

Following the failing moon

He returned through the wood.

Whenever he heard the tale

In later years, he would say,

“Nay, that cannot be. ‘Tis only a tale.’

Yet, he kept a record in a journal

Of his night sitting high above the glen.

A record for later generations

To find and ponder on.

Those who like to scare and dare

Say that on certain foggy nights,

Pirates will return

To the glen in the woods

To dance and fight around

Their pirate treasure hoard

And sing their pirate chant,

“Yo Ho! Yo Ho!”

#PirateTales #GhostTales