Christopher Columbus (Part 2)

The days at sea turned tense, the nights were scary,

The waves rolled by and the men grew wary

Of storms and starvation and what might lie in store

When the hand of Fate should wrap at their door.

And if you can imagine yourself so far from home

On a journey set out to explore the unknown,

Then perhaps you can sense and perhaps you can feel

The suspense in the air from crow’s nest to keel.

As the anxiety grew as the weeks did pass,

Lest their food and their water should fail to last.

But come mid-October, those nervous souls did see

Some wing-ed friends fly above their vessels three.

And like a lamp in the dark or a footprint on sand,

Birds are a tell-tale, that to a sailor means land!

And indeed in their wake floated more gleeful airs

As the shores were soon spotted to meet their prayers.

No, the ships didn’t dock on those Asian bays,

Weighing anchor instead on the Bahaman cays.

-- But Chris didn’t know it, so one understands

That the people he met he called “Indians”.

And these friendly natives, the tribe Arawak,

For gold trinkets and more, they did not lack.

No, it wasn’t such riches as make men dream,

But it still did add to Spanish eyes a gleam.

So, on a trip to the East where the sun does rise,

A man who sailed West got a stunning surprise.

That the maps would need fixing, for soon it was clear:

They’d left out a bit called the Western Hemisphere.

And thus two worlds were joined by a daring trip,

By a most daring man in a most daring ship,

And no tale of the world can now ever skip

Christopher Columbus, very important person (vip).