Sailors Prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

Grant no other sailor take

My shoes and socks before I wake,

Lord guard me in my slumber

Keep me safely in thy sight

and grant no fire drill tonight,

And in the morning let me wake

Breathing scents of sirloin steak.

God protect me in my dreams

And make this better than it seems.

Grant the time may swiftly fly

When myself shall rest on high

In a snowy feather bed

Where I long to rest my head

Far away from all these scenes

And the smell of half done beans.

Take me back into the land

Where they don’t scrub down the sand.

Where no demon typhoon blows

Where the women wash there cloths.

God thou knowest all my woes-

Feed me in my dying throes.

Take me back I’ll promise then

Never to leave home again. . . . .

 

FOUR YEARS LATER

Our father who art in Washington

Please, Dear Father, let me stay

Do not drive me now away

Wipe away my scalding tears

And let me stay for thirty years

Please forgive me all my past

And things that happened

At the mast

Do not my request refuse

And let me stay another cruise.