Across And A Cross – Frank Nicolas

There’s an old piece of wood here
Once the heart of a tree
It’s seen winters in norway
Now it’s looking at me

In every crack is a story
A tale in every stain
I hear the voice of the ages
Whisper a weathered refrain

I’ve been around the world twice
I’ve seen centuries pass by
I’ve been across the Blue ocean
And here I lie

They felled me one morning
Spring of sixteen-o-four
They hauled me off to the shoreline
To Bragernes Drammen port

And then on to the North Sea
Past the Frisian Isles
We rolled in through the Pampus
To the old river Zaan

Where the windmills drove sawblades
Through every inch of my trunk
Up, and down and up again
Chunk by chunk

Then they left me to dry out
Until the ship-builders came
They took my heart to the shipyards
Put my scraps to the flame

To be part of the ship’s bow
When my body was bent
They poured a cup of wine on me
And away we went

We sailed ‘round the good hope
On a westerly breeze
We brought pepper and nutmeg
From the far, far east

Robert Holmes made a bonfire
Burning ten dozen ships
Vows of vengeance and cries for war
Were on everyone’s lips

Tubes of bronze were upon me
The smell of death in the air
Sailors clutching my edges
On a dying prayer

With the cannonballs raining
Down on splintering wood
We sprung a leak and were towed away
They stripped all that they could

For a woodworker found me
Carved a nice figurine
But his wife quoted Calvin
Saying I was obscene

So he chiseled my legs out
Gave me a thorny crown
He did a half-hearted paint job
And the church paid him down

I’ve been around the world twice
I’ve seen centuries of loss
I’ve been across the blue ocean
I’ve been nailed to a cross