She was unsinkable, or so they thought. Woods fired, engines chugged, they sailed her West in fair majestic pride unknowing of a tragic ending, a harrowing recollection. In a blink of an eye, she collided with a tip of the ice, a thousand lives and more swallowed by angry tides, cries of mercy resonating, woes fading into the familiar shuttered countenance, one by one. Debris floating back and forth, a horrifying spectacle of bodies buoyant, breathless, as salty waters sing a lullaby, consoling souls from a sudden departure. The Ship of Dreams, The Unsinkable, in all her vainglory a grand exit on her first and final journey, but not before a farewell kiss pressed on her lipsβ She, in a trance, breath withdrawn, her limbs weak and weary. Slowly she plunged but not before looking back one last time.
This is a calligram I wrote in 2019 with the title "Cautionary Tale." Inspired by the RMS Titanic shipwreck, I renamed the poem with something more befitting to its message.