Poem: Cook's Dream

"... [they] set no value on anything we gave them.
nor would they ever part with any thing of their own
for any one article we could offer them ..."

For him the sea was another sky
And the sky another sea
Deep as wishing wells and both
As big as blue can be

Sleeping rocked in his cradle-ship
With a compass by his bed
His mind was painting landscapes
The size of continents in his head

He imagined a land with soil so red
That it bled before your eyes
With trees so full of wondrous birds
That were laughing with their cries

With a sun so low it warmed your feet
That was melting heavy as gold
With lizards and rocks that spoke in tongues
Each a million years as old

Then we saw it through his looking glass
From his vantage on the deck
And ordered all hands to head for shore
Be it risk of ruin or wreck

When he placed his foot upon the dirt
It was with no trepidation
And with single-minded bloodiness
He thought It feels like a new nation

But this was before he saw the feet
That shared ground with his two
They were bare and black and wary
Of this strange man and his crew

Greetings he said Hello, how are you
We are from across the sea
But they just looked and frightened him
So that he was dying for a pee

He was however a captain
And put his duty before all
So tightened up his bladder
And got rolling with the ball

We have come he said to claim this place
A wasteland and paradise
For the monarchy of our fair land
I hope these baubles will suffice

He offered them biscuits made of crumbs
He offered them buttons and boots
He offered the very tops of trees
And finally even the roots

He was succinct, polite and even suave
And smiled five times a minute
And though the smiles were returned incalculably
For the rest they would not be in it

They handed back the bells and beads
They handed back the jackets
They even returned incuriously
Things still unwrapped from packets

Back on board he wrote in his log
Of all he had to tell:
My recording of the nothingness
Is going very well

There is some doubt he further wrote
Of exactly what was proffered
They seemed not to perceive the value
Of the riches that we offered

It is also clear they did not exist
Before our arrival here today
For the land untouched and wild
Would not have allowed them any way

They have simply sprung up bodied
As people do in dreams
To deliver certain messages
And make all as it seems

I listened well to each small sound
To the movements of their hands
Which motioned agitatedly
Towards our rowboats on the sands

This seemed a sign he scribbled down
To give the order to unpack
So I called a lad to grab a pole
And hoist the Union Jack

He tossed and turned upon his bunk
For from here the dream turned nasty
As if it lasted for two hundred years
Of incidents vile and ghastly

A storm blew upon the sea
And tipped him to the floor
Where he sat confused rubbing his eyes
As if they wondered what they saw

He had dreamed he discovered a new country
But woke before the end came true
So never found what happens if
You do something you are not able to ...
MTC Cronin