Sailor's Rest

Stan Rogers

(CHORUS 1)

It's acrimony down in the card room

With winning hands thrown on the baize;

Forgotten cards wait on the end of debate

On the good old days.

Captains and mates getting testy

With memories not of the best

And tempers are flying

Down at the Sailor's Rest.



Blue eyes in wrinkled Morocco

Still search the horizon for squalls,

And Zeros in the sky and the watchkeeper's eye

And the pawn shop balls.

The spice in the wind off Java

And the bars in Papity were best,

But the deck is too steady

Down at the Sailor's Rest.



(Chorus 2)

And oh...how they talk of the day they arrived;

When after the years, all the storms and the tears,

Still very much alive.

And oh...how their lives were spilled out on the floor

From the battered old seabags, the journals and logs

And the keepsakes locked in the chests

That were stowed in the attic [sold at the auction]

Down at the Sailor's Rest.



No rail on the mess room table

And you're dead if you spit on the floor.

No grog allowed, no singing too loud,

And no locks on the doors;

But there's always a fire in the card room

And the tucker is always the best,

And they'll end it together

Down at the Sailor's Rest.



(CHORUS 2)

And oh...how they talked of the day they arrived...



So...(CHORUS 1)