Alchemisland

Ain’t here to teach you

That’s your father’s job

I ain’t going to fetch for you 

I’m not your loyal dog 

If I was I’d be Cujo

Bounding at you from out the fog 

Lips painted with mad froth, fierce jaw

Gaping maw, straw dogs

Force a pacifist to raise his fist in anger to resist, split you like fire logs

Seventeen aboard the ship 

A mystery eighteenth

Absent from the ship’s logs.