BURNING ROPE

My father smoked a pipe that smelt like burning rope,

But he had met the crowned heads of Europe,

And he’d walked across the desert, when all had said, no hope.

And he used to keep a monkey on a string.

And he once saw a sheep that had six legs.

And he passed a copper penny through a giant’s signet ring.

And he beat a man of letters playing pegs.

And he saw the star of David in the West.

And he touched the spray-lined Goddess on her saline wooden breast.

And he smelt the salt of seven different seas.

And could tell the age of women by their knees.

And he sang the songs the sparrows teach their young.

And he felt the actual rope that Crippen hung.

And he knew the way from here to Kingdom Come.

And we wondered why he ever married Mum.

My father smoked a pipe that smelt like burning rope.

But he had met the crowned heads of Europe.