A Night to Remember
In chambers of memory, a great vessel rides,
Not steel, nor steam, but spectral, she presides.
A gilded cage, a promise bravely sold,
In every polished plank, a story is foretold.
She is a fragile vase of human grace and pride,
On dark and silent seas, where our illusions hide.
Each passenger, a hope, a fear, a dream in tow,
A gallery of souls, the high and the low.
The Captain is a hand upon the clock’s cold face,
Demanding speed, though time runs out of space.
The rich man is a vault, his wealth a heavy key,
Ignoring the deep warnings of the coming sea.
The third-class stoker, just a single, vital breath,
Unseen, unheard, the engine of life and death.
The iceberg is the Truth, inevitable and vast,
The quiet, crushing weight of choices in the past.
It does not hate, it simply is, a fact so stark and cold,
That shatters the fragile myths the builders had been told.
The moment of the strike, a tremor, then a sound,
The crack of certainty, where no fault was found.
The decks become a stage, a drama stark and clear,
As the ship of our conceit is conquered by our fear.
The band plays on—denial’s lovely, fading tune,
A brave, sweet song beneath a pitiless, dark moon.
Lifeboats, opportunities, are launched with space to spare,
A cruel economy of panic and despair.
And as the bow descends, a final, gasping plea,
The vase is tipped, the waters rush in free.
The decks go vertical, the social order breaks,
The cold, black water claims what the deep ocean takes.
The metaphor goes down, a legend to the core,
A night the soul remembers, forevermore.
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