XIV

In the silent night we thought we could hear
Water lapping against distant shores;
Constant reminders of the cruel
Twist of fate.
I shivered alone, skin prickling
As door pieces floated by alongside
Empty life vests
Bodies with darkened eyes
All listlessly floating to somewhere
Out there

Anyone still left had ten minutes to go.

Just enough time for a prayer.

XII**

Pretty white-feathered wine
swirls in my glass like the sea
and I can feel her watching me
watching her
as the time trickles through an hourglass.

From here I see
her flashing-train-car-window
freckles
smiling back at me
gentle origami-winged laughter
settles on my eyelashes
as her rose-red drink
stains what was once plain.

-Lord, that smile
like a stitched-up killer
of my mind
yet still philharmonically sound
I draw her near,
“Dive with me.
Stay with me.”

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…

XI**

Please excuse my
lack of vivacity
recently
and the fact that I’ve missed every
ocean-side view
so far.
I know I sleep only
sparingly
and at night my eyes are always
watching
keeping my girl safe.
I know I’ve missed many
top-deck galas
and the Sunday morning service
but I pray bedside instead.
How could I not heed
a premonition like this
(that we will, soon coming,
be strung on a deathly line)?
How could I so endanger my
child?
Her father-
oh, what a brainless man-
insists that she see all the
grandeur.

Darling, did you regret
strolling by daylight
when your daughter and I
watched you die?

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.

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.

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

XVII

Sometimes I still see the light
filtering through the dining hall windows
and remember long hours of laughter
shared over brandy.
I remember my son, dapper in
a suit and tie
and how he wooed the women with
stories of glory
and battles on foreign shores
which I can still animate
in the colored glass of the windows.

I still see the china
punctual and pristine
stacked like the trunks of
trees
ring upon ring upon ring.
I know in my heart that they are yet
unbroken
-they, and the windows too
my soul knows they will be
as they were
for always and always more
until the Lady is forgotten.