Blood and Brine

By: Felix L. Perry

On the waters tossed and trembling

Where there was nowhere they could run

Brave men stood their watches

By the moon and by the sun

Soldiers did their part its true

Can’t forget those airmen too

Yet when you died upon the briny sea

King Neptune claimed what was left of you

Doing convoy escort on the Atlantic blue

Dodging U boats in wolf packs

Never once shirking their duty

Guns thunder empty casing stacks

You fought beneath the flag of freedom

For the ones denied their right

Blood and brine all too often

Mixed freely in each ocean’s fight

Now in Flanders Fields the poppies grow

But a sailor’s soul on each wave will flow

With anchors set and calmer years

We will not forget to shed them tears!