DECK-APE
Reading edition
He was just a little deck-ape With a happy kind of smile, And a line of boyish chatter That could make you laugh awhile. He was just a little deck-ape Always ready with a hand When a shipmate needed someone Who would help or understand. He was just a little deck-ape, And we buried him at sea When he stopped a strafer’s bullet That was meant, I think, for me.