Pirates and Metaphysics

"He would forget about pirates and metaphysics, the abstruse arguments that had so occupied him. . ."

No argument more abstruse
Than a gun-toting pirate
Boarding your ship and screaming
In a language you don't know.
Nothing thus begun ends well.
It's a metaphysical
Certainty. You will die soon,

Or you will suffer a while,
Or you will kill the pirate.
No, you won't kill the pirate.
How to suffer a pirate?
Decide quickly to forget
All your other arguments.
Leap cleanly into the sea.