Ghosts - The Vikings And The Nazi Destroyer Poem by Paul Warren

Thor's hammer had struck and they went raiding
The Viking farmers went looking for gold and exploring
The long boat was open as it rolled across the North Sea
With their tattooed faces as sea weathered as they could be
And Britain was the target for these wild Norsemen
Whose Gods for them had fierce warring plan

But the sea would not cooperate and fog closed in
With the Norsemen calling Odin by their battle horn din
The wind only just filled the square long ship sail
As they drifted wondering if this raid would fail
Then out of the fog they heard a different noise
With the chugging of a diesel oil engine without a poise

A grey warship shape came out of the foggy sea
And the Norsemen took to their weapons as quickly as could be
And the modern grey warship passed them close by
With the wake of the ship making it rough as the longship was tossed to the sky
When they had gained their poise again the last of the warship
Was seen as a red, black and white swastika flag from the rear of the ship

For the years after seeing this ghostly warship
They told the story as they sat in their long halls recounting it
What they had seen that day was a doomed Nazi Destroyer
That made a habit of machine gunning survivors in the water
And when sunk themselves near the end of the Second World War
They were doomed to sail the Timeless North Sea forever more.

© Paul Warren Poetry