Sailing Ships 101
 
The jackass barque
is an uncommon ship with a kickass name.
Anything that falls
 
between a barque and a barquentine
can be called a jackass,
or sustain serious injury, or both. 
 
A three-masted jackass
might have a square-rigged foremast, a mainmast
with a gaff mainsail, but square top-
 
and topgallant sails, with a fore-and-aft-
rigged mizzen, and a facial tic.
A four-masted jackass
 
might have the fore-and mainmasts square-
rigged and the mizzen- and jiggermasts fore-
and-aft rigged, and a collective libido
 
with a dangerous amount  of free-surface.
The ship takes her name from the crew
of mainly drunken jackasses splicing
 
eyes in three-line stanzas - sports stunsails
on extended yards before a quartering
gale, sets moonrakers among the stars.

Peter Clement Davis

If you've any comments on this poem, Peter Clement Davis would be pleased to hear from you.