Chapter I

"the more was the pity [...] and that head up there for to watch ships off [showerhead sky to wash the ship off—to de-shit the ship, to make it 'decent' (or to de-scent it—to take the smell out, like a passenger, welcome only in passing, then passed off to shore ('Raise your hand if you're Sure' [deode-Rant (p)ending])]" (2)

"mought [a conflation of 'ought' and 'might'—'thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought' (Berryman)—thereafter nothing fell out as it mought—thereafter nothing fell into a moat—filled in a moat, as a substitute fills in] [Mott's: an applesauce—another blending]" (2)

"for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms [...] weather-eye open [whether I opened myself to his alarms or not was at stake (whether his arms opened to me); whether I was the snooze-pusher or the refusing eye, fused shut by the eye's oozing, I had stock there—was the stocking pulled up the stems (a team of legs) of his alerting (lured thing that I was)]" (2)

"There were nights when he took a deal more rum [made a deal with rum to throw him over] and water than his head would [head-wood, blockhead] carry" (3)

"walking the plank [:] [...] the language in which [...] the crimes that he described [...] was [,] [...] for people would soon cease" (3)

"my father never plucked up the heart [the heart never lucked out in this way] [chicken-heart, purposed toward plucking] [chicken heart, hearten; aim a puck at the father-goal—to score, to score! (four score and...) (a scourge upon...)]" (3)

"and which, before the end, was nothing but patches [patched upon the butt of the worn jeans of the end (upon the rear end of the real end) (a reel lets loose its thread for attaching the patch) (rather than attack, we patch things up)]" (4)

"filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours [flighty, heathen, leering, crow-footed pirate of ours] [fit, hearty, blinged-out, causing-one-to-eat-crow pirate of ours] [crony-pirate, filching, thus having, and bearing (straw)ng arms]" (4)

"if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel [rum will (run / rum) you to the ground—a dirt-quilt pulled over your very dirtiness—and something to mark the grave spot where your rum-sport tallies one more]" (5)

Chapter II

"I had always my eye open for seafaring men [my 24-hour eye with ample seating for what's seen to make a scene in], with one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me [made a puzzle of my grasping that I might stand over it, edge seeking another edge]. He was not sailory [but savory], and yet he had a smack of the sea about him [as if he had macked on the sea and/or it hit on him (took him out with its forward-Ness) (monsterly [like easterly, as in 'easterly winds'] affection [a kind (of) win])] [he was no snack for the sea] too [snack on]" (6)

"We'll put it, for argument like, [we'll putt it in the hole of this claim,] that your captain has a cut on one cheek [where a knife checked off his well-done cheek]—and we'll put it, if you like, that that cheek's the right one [by which to identify your captain, the other cheek being the wrong one to fit the cut-cheek description, to fetch a yes when asked, 'A cut on the cheek? Check yes or no.' 'No.']" (6)

"as like you as two blocks [as like you as twin blokes are like each other] [as like you as lye the skin it washes off and off of]" (7)

"a spy-glass [:] [...] what we used to call a lump in the throat" (7)

"Once out upon the road, Black Dog, in spite of his wound, showed a wo[u]nderful clean [re]pair of heels" (8)

"his death-hurt [...] trebly" (9)

"we'll have a good look at the colour of your blood [we'll (micro)scope out your blood] [we'll bait it on a spectrum by calling it a mirror and asking where it sees itself] [blood answers]" (9)

[The Adventures of ]"Mr. Bones—" (9) [and Henry: Pirates Steering the Poet-Ship Far Out / Ransacking the Poet-Ship Who Later Forsakes Them, Sinking, Sinking]

"I stake my wig [in my scalp-yard] [I bet it against barrenness] [it beds my scalp: a mating (a matting)] [my wig perches upon the shoulder of my scalp (I wig out)]" (9)

Chapter III

"Doctors is all [cotton] swabs [and patients is all ears to wax on about]" (10)

"I live[re]d [out] on rum, I tell you [pin the tail on my vice (drink up a tale that pins me)]. It's been meat and drink [the meat of me a sanctuary for drink], and man and wife [merriness marries me to it], [and it] to me" (10)

"as plain as print [& as planned as rent] [a lease at least—lease-clear is how it reads to me]" (10)

"I'll raise Cain [from the dead] [I'll zombie Cain if I must]" (11)

"'Thunder!' he cried. 'A week! I can't do that [I'm weak; I can't do that] [to pledge the day of myself to the storm of that thing] [myself a banister upon which the Pledge rains down] [who wipes (away / out) (a way out not so way out that one can't believe)]'" (11)

"you won't peach [but you will plumb the depths to its pit] [you will pit yourself to grapple with the depths of it, however those depths cluster] [you will take the banana boat out and water melancholia where it grows in the armpit the bank is where we sweat out to sea]" (12)

"'But what is the black spot, captain?' I asked. ['The death-freckle? A dollop of squid ink in a white white bowl?] / 'That's a summons, mate. I'll tell you if they get that [and they'll tell you what you get if it's that] [the spot will mark you] [you'll be summed up by that mark, mark my words].'" (12)

"he minded people less [obeyed them never], and seemed shut up in [silenced in, hushed by] his own thoughts [a hush that needs be hashed out] [he himself the hashbrowns 'ate up' by his own thoughts]" (12)

"to follow the sea [anywhere] [a sea-devotee] [debonair sea, with its waves breaking into carnations of foam—coarse corsages] [flowerless, corsairs court the sea]" (12)

Chapter VI

"and told his story like a lesson [told his story to lessen the effects of his actions] [his lesson among his effects, those carried about him] [whomsoever cares about him lessens other blows to his ego by caring for his story, the small cat of it that needs feeding in his absence, that needs petting in his presence] [who plays teacher's pet to his story?] [and all the heads raised like hands]" (23)

"Blackbeard was a child to Flint [Blackbeard was a child to sharpen] [Blackboard a chore to unchalk] [the sea sharpened Blackbeard from child to chilling] [a blackboard filled with scratch (nails filed in scratching down it)] [the figure he cut] [we figure he cut many with cutlass, not knowing how many lasses figure into that cutting]" (24)

"for what would they risk their rascal carcases [sic] but for money [...] First of all we'll try the book [they booked it after risking the body-cases where they carry their rascalness] [their Auto-nomous selves]" (24-25)

"Billy Bones his fancy [...] and some other snatches, mostly single words [girls] and unintelligible [single words that make 'girl' unintelligible] [the derog(ue)atory by which Billy bones (at / it) all] " (25)

"'got itt,' [...] what 'itt' [?] [...] [a stutter] A knife in his back as like as not" (25)

"Bones, his pile [the lost contents of his baggage, the body-case he lugs around] [...] See what it is to be a traveler [continent-strewn, but tidily so] ['How does your sack stack up?' 'Suck it up; I've as many bones as you. No bones about it—my bone-kit's marked human and built so']" (25)

"and money to eat [dough]—to roll in [to roll out]—to play duck and drake with ever after [to duck and cover] [to cover duck with dough and let heat play with it] [some purse!—the type to unpurse lips: the mouth-slot welcoming an onslaught of some slaughtered thing]" (26)

Chapter VII

"almost [or at most] a prisoner, but full of sea-dreams [or filling drams to share in some dreamy booth, sea-facing] [caught picking the lock of the dream—caught, then locked up] [dreamscape escape a caper then capture again]" (29)

"The ship is bought and fitted [into the suit of a] name [that suits it], Hispaniola [the name expands the ship (no pin-stripe name, slimming) (not slim, but fit: the ship)]" (29)

"A pretty rum go [a sexy tango] if squire ain't to talk [if squire squares away his voice in his voice-box] for Dr. Livesey [Dr. Lives'e's Saved!], I should think [the lives he'd ruin if his voice is run aground that way]" (30)

"Long John Silver [LJS for short], he is called [since he answered the call of the sea], and has lost a leg [because he answered the call of the sea with no guarantee of his safety]; but that I regarded as a recommendation [I regarded him as part of the old guard, guarding the gold secret, the treasured spot, chests stopped up with coins]" (30)

"fellows, b[u]y their faces ['Let me try on that surly one there' 'And I'll bury my girl-face by binding below-face the breast-fact' (of the two most common buryings, feces is one)]" (30)

"since he was repainted, no longer quite so dear [since he repented, no longer quite so dire (his dying or not) (his dying sure to be ornate—a coat over his current one) (nine lives at least [and so his dying, again, not so dire, though his drying, crucial (the crew shall blow all at once ['shiver me timbers! shiver me in my timber-carved frame'])])]" (32)

"the most wonderful figureheads, that had all been far over the ocean [fawn-like in the hedges of waves]. I saw, besides [and shore side], many old sailors, with rings [and ringing] in their ears [and piglets as parts of them: 'pig-tailed singing seamen' (32)], and whiskers curled in ringlets [...] and their swaggering, clumsy [sea-chummy] sea-walk; and if I had se[a]n as many kings or archbishops [with their signet rings] I could not have been more delighted [nor would I have sighed more, nor assigned more awe (as a moron might) to them]" (32)