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Poet's Corner

A Sailor's Prayer
 

By: Unknown
Submitted by: Jim Spaulding, DC2
NAVINACTSHIPFAC, Phila., PA
USS PRAIRIE (AD-15) 2/66-10/69
From the collection of William (Bill) D. Wilson, BMC USN (Ret.) 1941-61

 

 Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep
Grant no other sailor take
My shoes and socks before I wake
Lord guard me in my slumber
and keep my hammock on its number
May no dues nor lashings break
An let me down before I wake
Keep me safely in the sight
And grant no fire drill tonight
And in the morning let me wake
Breathing scents of sirloin steak
God protect me in my dreams
And make this better than it seems
Grant the time may swiftly fly
When myself shall rest on high
In a snowy feather bed
Where I long to rest my head
Far away from all these scenes
And the smell of half done beans
Take me back into the land
Where they don't scrub down with sand
Where no demon Typhoon blows
Where the Women wash the clothes
God thou knowest all my woes
Feed me in my dying throes
Take me back I'll promise then
Never to leave home again.

Four Years Later

 

Our Father who art in Washington
Please dear Father let me stay
Do not drive me now away
Wipe away my scalding tears
And let me stay for Thirty years
Please forgive me all my past
And things that happened at the mast
Do not my request refuse
An let me stay another cruise

 

 


    

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