A Sailor Named Taylor

(Reading level: grade 5.8)

There once was a sailor named Taylor,
Who couldn't swim a lick.
He joined our ship to escape a jailor,
Who was hunting him with a very big stick.

It seems that on a sweetly-scented star-lit night,
That Taylor stole a few sweet kisses,
Off a pretty young gal named Sal.
Unbeknownest to the soon-to-be sailor,
The sweet young gal was promised...
To a skinny-legged tailor.

That skinny-legged tailor heard of the stolen kisses,
And rushed madly out into the night.
Soon the soon-to-be-sailor heard of the tailor and his desire to fight.

The gathering gossips soon caused Taylor's youthful pride to swell,
Till presently he began to tell,
Just how badly he'd maul the skinny-legged tailor.

Quiet possibly he would have succeeded,
Had Taylor met tailor in a fair-handed fight.
But it seems that the skinny-legged tailor,
Had a large muscled brother... the jailor.

So as tailor and jailor looked for the soon-to-be-sailor,
Taylor took flight in the night.

Down tot eh docks and out on the pier,
The soon-to-be-sailor fled in fear.
And what should his wide-eyed gaze behold?
Our fair ship a-casting off...
So into our hold he dove.

Amid much clatter, noise, and wonderment,
We watched his landing on our load of cement.

HIs face was badly cut and bruised,
But he begged heartily to stay aboard.
After a while the captain consented,
But...oddly,,, beat him daily with the flat of his sword,
For the manner, he said, in which he came aboard!

So that's the story of Taylor the sailor,
Who served with us on the wide open seas,
Under an oddly acting captain - a man of two brothers, I believe,
One a tailor, the other a jailor.

Alas, there once was a sailor named Taylor,
Who couldn't swim a lick.


Clint Bowman
1 May 1995