The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #99170   Message #2099312
Posted By: Charley Noble
10-Jul-07 - 08:54 PM
Thread Name: Old Sailor-Poets (early 1900's)
Subject: RE: Old Sailor-Poets (early 1900's)
Here, Burt Franklin Jenness is waxing nostalgic for his days in the navy now that he's freshly mustered out on shore. The "Mystery" is of course the culture shock of re-entry into civilian life:

From OCEAN HAUNTS, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness,
Empire Publishing Co., New York, US, © 1934, pp. 57-58.

THE MYSTERY

I'm back on my old job again; the boss has raised my pay;
I've donned "civilians," and I've put my uniform away;
The folks are proud because their son has done his bit at sea,
And everybody 'round the house is happy — except me.
There's something I don't understand, about this coming home;
For when I should be most content, my thoughts begin to roam;
And when I light my cigarette, I seem to see the gang
Up for'rd on the fo'c's'le, and I hear the songs they sang.
When I'm awakened by a voice, I think it's not for me,
And I turn over for a nap, and wait for reveille;
And 'round the steaming coffee every morning, now, there clings
The memories of mess time, and all the joy it brings
When a fellow comes off morning watch, with not a bite since four,
And cold and drenched — and his relief a half hour late, or more.
The wind that howls around the house, but brings delight to me,
For I hear the creak of gear, and racing screws at sea;
The sleet which cut my face today, as I walked into town,
I fought, in fancy, on the bridge, where I paced up and down;
There's something strange about the way I dream, now, on the job,
And stranger still, that I should long to be once more, a gob.

Notes

"Gob" is navy slang for a sailor.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble