Captain Cook Poem by Paul Warren

So the word is out
In most of the Pacific places
Captain Cook sailed to on his voyages
Local laws and customs were broken
And he was lucky to not be killed
For these offences by the local people

But he was a great navigator who knew
Where he was on the planet
At all times in his voyages
When his luck ran out on Hawaii
When the natives killed him in a property dispute
And his men had to leave his body

The natives took his body
And boiled it down for his bones
But they returned his hands and his buttocks
To his shipmates to honour him
So what was left of Cook was buried at sea
As was fitting for the great sailor and navigator that he was.

© Paul Warren Poetry