Montgomery-made

Shadowy alley beside the ancient inn

Beyond earshot of a drunkards’ din

Lone figure loiters in the driving rain

Steadfast under elemental strain

Escaping old naval tales regaled

For he shirked and fled the ships unsailed

Dishonour disguised so deliberately

Still wearing the King’s finest livery

In darkest wool Montgomery-made

Hand-stitched concealment of a sailor’s blade

Under oil lamps burning barely lit gloom

Waits with ill-intent to silence too soon

The innocent threat, unsuspecting mouse

Serving girl paramour from the ale house

Heavy footsteps turn her head with surprise

Fiery fear flowing in bright cerulean eyes

Seeking the demise of long-promised plans

Brutally now with once soft, gentle hands

Catching her porcelain neck by the nape

Erstwhile vessel of love and dreams of escape

Sleight of wrist from under dark hooded coat

A rigging knife raised unseen to her throat

Crimson tide deluge deftly freeing his lies

Surging waves forestalling the Sailor’s demise

Secrets corrupted to haematic drops in the ether

Lost on the ensanguined pavement beneath her

Surely granted reprieve of the noose as she dies

Betrayal carved forever in marble-still eyes

Worn leather pouch of silver coins paid

To the travelling brigand wielding a spade

Hurriedly shovelling the shallow dirt grave

Witnessing the Sailor escaping unscathed

Coward callously fleeing our mortuary scene

Where she bides unfound in the world between

Twisted roots of trees, wild funerary flowers

Stowed away aboard ship, the guilty man cowers

Relinquishing a legacy he would never discover

Swaddled newly-born safe at home with another

Surviving alone a score of years as an orphan

Son becomes solider seeking justice for the fallen

A familial revenge tale itself as old as time

Switching glasses in darkness to poison the Sailor’s wine

Thrown cold to the blue depths his saltwater end

His Mother, her murder, their lost life avenged

Myriads of travellers encounter her ageless ghost

Still haunting all sailors absconding crimes of the coast.