A Boat for the Burning
by Baron Garwig der Waffenschmidt, Botbindr



Beneath my hands you took your shape

Midst scream of saw and drifting dust.

Layered laths your ribs do drape

Shaped in steam and clamps’ firm thrust. 

Thy planks not joined with peg nor steel; 

Strake to strake but glue doth hold 

Rib to gunwale, stem to keel

In twelfth-part form of ships of old.

No battle ever shall you fight

For single voyage, ne’er returning

To end within a flare of light

You are built, the boat for burning. 

Our loved ones, comrades, wives and lords,

Are gone beyond, where none return

Carry our blessings, gifts and words

To these departed, as you burn. 

Thirteen flames upon your deck     

Shall gleam beneath the darkling sky.

You are offered in all respect

To sail beyond the sunset’s eye. 

But some do ask me, pray, to tell

Why this effort, waste, and cost?

Have we not fully bid farewell

To all our kin we’ve loved and lost? 

My comrades, family, well-met friends:

Know I seek to mourn no more.

This ship, this rite, our love extends

To those who wait on Lethe shore.  

So join we now by placid lake

Not to grieve for lives now gone:

Let us loving memoriam make

Of lives once shared in joy and song. 

Then place your tokens, love in draft, 

To mark once more a year’s full turning

Within the hull of this small craft,

This ship, this boat, this Boat for the Burning.