(i)
black the sea and blacker yet the night
no star to ease the crushing dark
no light to steer by;
and god said
let there be storm,
(ii)
terrible water mountains, unseen yet felt, yet heard
and below, full fathoms and ghosts
of mariners long lost in lore;
but dead men watch at this hour
all others thrown,
drowned in sleep
no dutchman here only screaming air
sucking breath
from a salt whipped watch-keeper;
palsied vessel shudders with each dive, metal
groans fatigue and engines hammer
and screw churns space.
pounding hull, deck awash and foamy,
burrowing into swell, this steel behemoth
a brittle speck upon hell’s surface.
ocean flattened by hurricane’s breath
god’s exhalation;
(iii)
loneliness is solid; fear is real;
death waits within the next surge as hulls creak, crack,
a broken hogged back nightmare
and every sailor’s love is every sailor’s horror;
the sea, the sea, my love, my mistress
my killer.
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