Inspired by Frank Wilbert Stokes' painting, The Phantom Ship

gobbled ten years ago  
by greedy gales and warped waves  
the SS Wilbert lay somewhere
off the Grand Banks  

forgotten by all save
one sailor’s widow, who yet wandered  
the sands, daft they said, to wait
for the ship’s belated return    

no resurrection would occur
its oaken beams, cargo, and sad ******
on the ocean’s black floor, fodder
for creatures without eyes, ears  

yet she swore she saw
its billowed masts, its hardy hull
riding ready waves on a blue horizon,
dark, but safe from tempest