What do Pirates and Saints have in Common?

I imagine them

The Pirates and The Saints

Sharing a bowl of mead

Passing the communal vessel around

Speaking prayers and making speeches

The pirates’ teeth are rotting

Scurvy was a thing

The Saints are old and bald and portly

Bearded, learned, peaceful.

They smile at the ardor of the pirates

The Pirate King’s ability, 

with compass and log line and sextant

To know where they are, and ensure they will arrive

Where they intend

It is like the saint’s ability

To sit, and close their eyes

To Know

To Be (wise)

They lift the bowl

In rounds,

Together,

Like our ancestors way back

They speak of their hopes

Their gratitude

Their dreams

And Their Gods/God

Comes down to the party

And they laugh and sing

And pass out

The next day

After piecing their lives back together,

Sharing breakfast

Cleaning Up

They smile 

Shake hands

And part in peace

To meet again

Hopefully

At next year’s Feast

Of Saint Bartholomew

The honey harvest

The end of summer

Or All Hallow’s Eve

The night where the dead

Rise