Gedicht
Ruth Padel
CAT O’ NINE TAILS
CAT O’ NINE TAILS
CAT O’ NINE TAILS
Shrieks from above, on deck. One sailor lashedby the cat, twenty-five times for Drunkenness.
Three strands of rope, unravelled into three
(“the Trinity of Trinities” sets sinners on the path
to righteousness) and then replaited for a more
effective wound. Drum rolls – all hands to witness
punishment. Silence as tails are disentangled.
In the Bay of Biscay, the naturalist lies retching
on the floor: trying not to picture barbed knots
biting a cross on every spine and shoulderblade,
a glary scarlet scribble on open flesh again, again,
again. Thirty-one lashes for Neglect of Duty;
Disobeying Orders, thirty-four. Forty-four –
that’s Drunkenness with Insolence. The Captain
says he must establish order from the start.
Leg irons on five more. Till we passed Teneriffe,
says the Captain’s log, he was terribly sick.
“The misery,” he tells his journal, “is excessive.”
© 2009, Ruth Padel
From: Darwin: A Life in Poems
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, London
From: Darwin: A Life in Poems
Publisher: Chatto & Windus, London
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CAT O’ NINE TAILS
Shrieks from above, on deck. One sailor lashedby the cat, twenty-five times for Drunkenness.
Three strands of rope, unravelled into three
(“the Trinity of Trinities” sets sinners on the path
to righteousness) and then replaited for a more
effective wound. Drum rolls – all hands to witness
punishment. Silence as tails are disentangled.
In the Bay of Biscay, the naturalist lies retching
on the floor: trying not to picture barbed knots
biting a cross on every spine and shoulderblade,
a glary scarlet scribble on open flesh again, again,
again. Thirty-one lashes for Neglect of Duty;
Disobeying Orders, thirty-four. Forty-four –
that’s Drunkenness with Insolence. The Captain
says he must establish order from the start.
Leg irons on five more. Till we passed Teneriffe,
says the Captain’s log, he was terribly sick.
“The misery,” he tells his journal, “is excessive.”
From: Darwin: A Life in Poems
CAT O’ NINE TAILS
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