Aloft a cliff amid the crags
High above the mist and foam
A nest of Albatross well made
A place of heart and home
Three wiley chicks beneath the breast
Shelter 'neath their mother's down
Watched out upon the sea's horizon
As the sun from sea did crown
For father Albatross had gone
A fishing through the cold dark night
And hadn't still returned to them
To make their hearts aright.
As morning burst like floom of whale
Spouting forth in gold array
A sadness there could be felt
That push their hopes away.
"Mother, dear, will Father come
And sing to us His song of praise
To give us food and sustenance
Our hearts he'll warmly raise?
"Will he upon the winds return
And settle what was gone and lost
Or has the sea in frigid apathy
Shroud him in her fog and frost?"
"O children mine, your tears are heard
Blossoms of my bosom, dears,
Fret neither on these worries wrought
Nor on these night borne fears.
"For lo thy father Albatross
Is wise and strong of wing
He'll fly for days and through the nights
On ocean breeze he's king.
"No stronger bird can fly as he
And though the sea with weathered wrath
Her torrent and her mighty gales
Can't change his course or path.
"And all the birds that float the mists
And all fish who swim the waves
Give homage to the Albatross
Who guards them from their watery graves.
"So look up through the mist when lost
Appearing there a gift so grand
The Albatross is God's true sign
That soon you'll find you're safe on land."
And so the nested mother kind
Willed her chicks with care
And spun the tales of sea and sky
In hopes she'd stave despair.
Yet all the while her heart did ache
For truth of monsters of the sea
Drew vividly inside her mind
Of demon ships and foul chanty
For known unto the Albatross
Were all the creatures far and wide
And only one was vile enough
From which the wise did hide.
These malovent demon clans
They rode atop the sea and waves
In barges made from oak and pitch
Their oily trail the sea depraves
They call themselves the sons of God
And tall they stand with pride filled chests
With every breath contemptuously
Expelling rot from in their breasts.
Anon one wretch from this clan
Will lure an unsuspecting bird
With treatise of some help they need
In kindly deed and word.
Against their better judgment's guide
Alas an Albatross will bend
With heart atip their outstretched wings
A kindly hand they'll lend
But monsters are they til the last
And they'll betray the kindly act
With cheating greed and hungered vice
They'll break a sacred pact.
And so this mother bird her chicks
Gathered with her wing real close
More for her to bouy her up
While fearful thoughts engross
As the orb of day arose
The Albatross king's bride
Spied o'erhead a snowy Owl
The dire sign the king had died.
And with the dire snow white Owl
Came cold a misty breeze
From far beyond the warm stream sea
Her tears instantly did freeze
The Northern gale a fury brought
To chide the mother bird
And laugh the sorrow of her loss
Upon the gusts she heard,
"Your love is dead, the Albatross
Shot through his heart in vain
By crossbow's bolt did pierce him there
And shot by hand of men!"
The Northern gale echoed twice
And thrice the chiding came
With each her heart did brake in twain
And chose the monstrous men to blame.
Then with the pleas rare ever heard
Cursed the sky this grief struck bird
And prayed to Sea and Sky and a Third
For vengeance of her pain now stirred
Upon the men whose vice had spurred
Her Albatross in sea interred
The Northern gale took pity on
The mother Albatross's plea
And with its breath impressed the gods
Convincing Sky and Sea
The Sky his stars hid from view
The monstrous mariners made blind
Not one could navigate the way
Their precious homes shant find
The Sea too showed obeisance with
The stopping of her breath
No wind blew there to fill their sails
An omen emanating death
And lo the men in vile form
Turned one upon the other
All invoke their baser id
And tried to kill their brother.
Just as the Sea and Sky reposed
Their vengeful lack of aid
One mariner was left alive
The Albatross he'd slayed
Brought back to land to spend his days
E'er going from here to there
To tell his fateful tale of pain
His Albatross to bear.
