Dead Man's Chest
by Dillon Collins
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil had done for the rest, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.
Well when I was a child I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, and I acted like a child. But when I became a man, I put childish ways behind me... Yea right...
The truth is that I am still just as selfish and immature as the boy that used to read Treasure Island cover to cover. Over and over and over, each and every night, because it was my favorite escape from reality.
Treasure chest dreams, hoping that maybe someday, if I wish really, really hard on the first evening star, like wish I may, wish I might, first star I see tonight, give me my fortune! Not so that I'm rich, but so that I don't have to work.
Because the truth is, I'm one lazy bastard. And I'm really really afraid sometimes that she said yes just because I asked her. Not from anything that she's been thinking, feeling, or believing, but purely from me. From this screwed up attitude that I'm the one that should constantly be receiving.
But yet, she's still here, Because she's magic.... Not like swamp voodoo but more like she's the fairy to my dragon. Because when I held out my fingernail claw flaws she covered them up with her fairy hands without me even asking! and even when I am at the worst of my worst and can't help myself from wonder "why on earth are you with a guy like me?!" She says "well I love you, and I'm lightning and you're my thunder and we make the world dance with our love."
Our pure, pure, passion can inspire poetry, and write fantasy all by itself. And someday we'll read these bedtime tales to our children for the betterment of their health, and they will realize that they don't have to make the same mistakes as the ones that came before them. We are gonna do our best to give them a better start than we had. And even it scares me to death I can't wait to be a dad.
But sometimes those old treasure chest dreams come back... And those fifteen men on a dead man's chest are fifteen demons I can't shake off of my heart. They keep whispering things like you ain't getting any better but you are sure getting older! And try to build the fire up, but you'll only get colder. They won't get out of my head! it makes me want to scream and shout and pout...
You heard that last word correctly. Because real men cry, real men shed their tears. Real men don't hide, their hopes and their pain and their fear. Real men are loved. And not a superficial lust. Even if they don't have a fiancé, there are people who without them would bust.
But lately I've come to realize something very powerful. I have found my fortune. My future wife is the greatest treasure I could have ever imagined. Far far better than XXX marks the spot. And this marriage is going to be a grander adventure than any pirate ship could ever grant me. Thank you God, for finding me my treasure.
