Rhum, Eigg and Muck

Most of his stories have sailed away but a few remnants remain.
Dad was a navy man
Back in the war
His whole life was shaped
By the things that he saw
A strong man a bright man
So often reserved
He’d explode on a short fuse
When I got on his nerves
Just now and then
He’d tell me stories
Of places he’d been to
Things that he’d seen
“Have I told you the one about?”
His opening line
But I barely listened
In my teens at the time
I left home at eighteen
And rarely went back
Frustrated relations
The generation gap
He died in the nineties
We could have done more
But so much of both of us
Was shaped by the war
Now I’m much older
Those stories are gone
Most of them sailed away
But a few still live on
Take me to Freetown
Take me to Stornaway
Take me to Malta and “Gib”
Those stories are gone now
But some of them stuck
Sail me past islands
Called Rhum, Eigg and Muck
© Mark Spruce 07/04/2023