XXV

Please,
don’t leave me.
You are the first friendly face
and the first to look me in the eye
for what seems like a lifetime.
Your warm blanket is my savior.

Don’t ask what happened.
Should I know, more so than
the others?
I saw what I saw.
My friends haven’t been found,
my family is dead.
Everything I ever knew is now
lost-
Don’t ask me how I feel.

No, this blood
isn’t mine.
My body is fine.

Yes, coffee sounds good.
And some *****,
if you’ve got it.

Anything to wash away
what I’ve seen
because it feels too real,
you know?

XXIV

Our father, who art in Heaven
hallowed be thy name

Bodies and blood rush past me.
If I open my eyes and let go
of these hands
I’ll lose faith

thy kingdom come
thy will be done,
in earth as it is in Heaven.

This Kingdom breaks under my
people
my hands bleed down and
I cannot link
enough souls
enough lives
to save us all
and I only cry this
prayer to You-

Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive them that trespass
against us.

In every face I see the forgiving
the forgetting and remembering
of the years they let slip
through their fingers.
They cross themselves for
the Son, the Father, the Holy Ghost
and those they love
and who loves them

And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
for thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.

Amen.

XXIII

The clear light of dawn may never be seen.
Just another moonless, silent night, and yet-
The voices of the ocean waves gently recede…

The engines cease, and escaping steam
Clouds the still air. The ship is but a silhouette.
The clear light of dawn may never be seen.

A soft noise, maybe like marbles rolling. Sixteen,
Or so. Just a few. It will be easy to forget.
The voices of the ocean waves gently recede…

Through an open porthole crashes ice, falling between
The cracks of the sea, all too soon met-
The clear light of dawn may never be seen.

It was like breaking glass. Glass, that careens
Into the places in our souls where we sing laments.
The voices of the ocean waves gently recede…

Sleep, children, sleep, for this will all be a dream-
Far from now, where cool breezes will thee abet…
The clear light of dawn may never be seen;
The voices of the ocean waves gently recede…

XXII

I pulled crimson petal
and petal
from my dying rose
to float there in the water;
though they didn’t stay
long
as the ship ****** on
ever faster

Goodbye was all the easier
the more mile we undertook
-and yet, each tear grew
looser
with every daydream I
dared dream
of my red and lovely rose.

FAITH, FAITH-
I screamed into the April air
America bring me hope for
I bring you
my huddled, my
poor
my
tired

Speed on, ever
faster

XXI

Ah, the fresh morning air of
Sailing Day.
Every working woman and man
in Belfast
seems to have come running today
eyes open and children in hand.
I paid a pretty penny to
set my lassie on a platform-
way up high with the wind chilling our cheeks
and brushing us silly with sunlight.
Early, early hour.

As clear as day I see three flags-
our Union Jack,
the stripes of Ms. Lady Liberty,
and the bold white star,
swimming in red.

Oh, my little lassie and I
will remember that day forever
When we waved goodbye to
face after face after face
Goodbye, dearest Titanic!

Our hearts sail with you
this glorious, glorious
morn…

**

Age.
I know not how others measure it
but my books suggest that I am,
well, how do you say it-
old.
I’ll steer one more maiden into
her dock
and go home, myself
to warm socks and steady ground.

62.
26.
I’ve spent the backwards reading of
my age
on ships
with stars on flags and vessels too fast
for mankind.
Just a few more days, I say
then no more miles
only garden
no more waves
only blankets
and I will age

Yes,
age.

XIX

Missed!
How the hell do you miss a ship?
There she was, slipping out of the harbor
Plain as a summer’s day
And there I was
On the harbor
Gashing in fury at my packed suitcase.

What will my family say?
Am I a failure?
Why can’t I do a single ******* thing
right?

I’ll dream of her tonight.
And night, and night.
Of my journey that wasn’t,
isn’t,
never will be.

I’m out of money and hope and fascination
and dreams
I’m going home,
now.
Godspeed to all I could never be.