Blackbeard I Poem by Lisa Hatfield

Blackbeard

By Lisa Hatfield

I am cunning, I am evil, I am merciless, and I deceive.

I approach as a countryman, as the faux rag descends, and delight in the horror my joli rouge impends.

I feel the thrill of excitement, like predator for prey, closing in on my victims not a care who I slay.

I am fearsome to look at, six feet tall plus some more, privateering for Britain, an outcome of Anne’s war.

I perfect my craft on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, I pillage, I plunder, I grow my fleet by the tens.

I am cunning, I am evil, I am merciless, I deceive.

I own the Caribbean seas up the coast to Virginia and collect wives and treasure for home in Carolina.

I extort tolls for the use of my Pamlico Sound, splitting spoils with the locals so they will stay off my ground.

I grow bored stealing treasures as sailors no longer fight, so I take Charleston until I get the cure for our plight.

I enjoy the fruits of my labor, from my beach house in Bath, my transgressions are pardoned, but there will be aftermath.

I crave adventure again this is my fatal mistake, I seal my fate with the determined enemy I make.

I am cunning, I am evil, I am merciless, I deceive.

I understand life is but a journey, I sense mine coming to a close, I gather up my people and celebrate with those.

I outmaneuver Maynard, and dry dock his boat, but underestimate his sly, this will cost me my throat.

I fail to believe he and his crew are not dead, but he’ll not be defeated in his quest for my head.

I perish like the legend I am, pierced through twenty times, but Maynard is the victor and I pay for my crimes.

I laugh, with a shrill, as I take my last guilty pleasure, my secret, to the grave, with the site of my treasure.

I am cunning, I am evil, I am merciless, and I deceive.

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