The Iceberg Was There First
I wonder what it looks like from below in the icy liquid gloom
Our legs flying, invisible bicycle spinning, arms turning
Keeping only barely above the water, our ears and chins dripping
Our hearts pounding, perhaps like the creatures below, wondering if this is supper at last?
The sea is cold and numbs the pain, and slows the blood, a curdle
Hurdy gurdy roundabout dance, circles and whirlpools so many
As one by one, faces we know so well, vanish quick
As the water gets even colder, and the friends we once had, disappear.
The ship is almost gone now, I can just see the stern, tilted
Bubbles and pieces of the dance floor fight to the surface
While we, the few remaining very few, do the same, but only some with success
As shapes, dark as the water below, circle and rise and kill,
Before the water can.
Ice blocks rattled in glasses not so log ago, crystals and gin
There were various reasons for the celebration, but the end is all the same
We had eaten well, and danced even more, and better
It is now time for others to feed, on our chilling bodies and bones.
I see the ship is gone now,
And bubbles rise with fragments of flesh,
A memory lingers on in the minds of those who so frozen survive
Any wreckage is a lifeboat secure, a few more moments, an hour
As we see the sun rise on the ice block in pink gin
So white, so cold, so blue.
( Long before the Titanic was popular in print and movies, I wrote this in 1986, after reading a book about the event... )
Copyright © Stuart Ackerman | Year Posted 2015
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