The Epic of Captain Mo

THE UNDERWORLD LIKES CAPTAIN MO

Captain Mo has the appearance of a tailor,

But Captain Mo is a stalwart sailor.

Captain Mo likes rum and shortbread

And sleeping with a nightlight by his bed.

Captain Mo doesn’t always speak in rhymes, but he likes to make a good first impression and rhyming often does the trick.

Rhyming is his most immediate method of impressing on a whim, but he has other talents also. Captain Mo has a repertoire of card tricks and does an excellent impression of a budgerigar.

But Captain Mo’s story is a tale of sorrow and isolation.

Every time Captain Mo sets out on a voyage, The Underworld draws him into its tumultuous seas.

Now, no-one will sail with Captain Mo, and he crews his galleon alone.

The Don of the Underworld likes the company of Captain Mo and always offers shortbread when he visits.

But Captain Mo is never pleased to be there.

The Don collects budgerigars and commands them to sing sea shanties for the pleasure of Captain Mo.

Captain Mo reminds the Don of his dark escapades with the formidable cannibal sea monkeys, and his subsequent loss of hearing on occasion.

The Don is disappointed.

Eerie silences are distracting and alarming for the Don in his oubliette.

All that The Don of the Underworld desires is company. He is very lonely because he is the only one around, apart from a skeleton who was boring to talk to. All of the souls of the fallen sailors drift beneath his bastion in an endless and woeful fog.

Captain Mo sails on, determined and relentless, hoping that one day he will reach new seas. Spare a thought for the valiant Captain, who pushes against the cruel barriers of Fate and their desperate clawing at his galleon. He sails onward, never looking back but always looking forward.

“Fate, my endless foe, watch my back as I sail ahead

And forget thy will to pull me to the land of the dead.”