The Fates of Richard Parkers

Richard Parker, Richard Parkers,
Their fates could not have been much darker:
Slain to fulfil a need
By those beyond simple greed,
With only the wish to survive,
To return and their life revive
At any cost,
Whatever’s lost,
For life and soul
Is a nasty toll
For coming home alive.

Richard Parker, Richard Parkers,
From home they can’t have seemed much farther,
When the knife pierced their skin,
Or the air was kept from within,
By those who had held their nerve
And never from their need swerved:
To blood spill
And bellies fill,
To gain even a few
Days to wait for rescue,
While Parker his sentence served.

Richard Parker, Richard Parkers,
The cost could not have been larger
For a life spent away at sea,
That ended in catastrophe,
Turned from person to a source of meat,
Claimed later as a necessary feat:
To kill to live,
Ethics sieved,
No longer nice,
No self-sacrifice-
Parker’s conclusion made awfully neat.

Richard Parker, Richard Parkers,
Slain by those with minds sharper,
Or losers at the drawing of lots:
The end of a desperate plot.
Poor wretches,
Death fetches
All in the end,
He never can lend
Time for that’s all that you’ve got.