The Titanic Saved My Life
Muscles bulging, sinews stretched, I know this ship inside out.
Every rivet I have pounded is to help me to get out.
This ship is new and will take me, to a life I am desperate for
I hope we sail before the police come knocking at my door.
I am free we have sailed, some of us to work on board the ship
To keep an eye and maintain every shiny new little bit.
I can breath they had missed me, I had made my escape
No one could get me now the noose would not be my fate.
This ship is huge, a floating city Titanic is her name.
The guests aboard are rich and famous, but I’m not part of that game.
I keep my head down, a few more days then I can start to live
A life in New York I couldn’t wait, there is now no need to forgive.
I felt a tremor, just a vibration, weird but not to worry
Look at the faces of the black gang here, they are in no hurry.
There is an order the ship is to turn, I can feel it but it is slow.
On deck when I reach there, it looks as though there’s been snow.
It’s now gone mid-night Aril Fifteen, things have gone from bad to worse
I know that we are sinking, I really want to curse.
I escaped the murder of my wife, who I found with other men
I’ve taken another life and false name, to be on this ship again.
I want to start a new life where no one looks for me.
Now it looks like it will end, at the bottom of this freezing black sea.
I crawl and scramble, with the rest gates are locked this cannot be
Even the passengers are stuck; never mind the likes of me.
I spy a life boat lowering, no one on board that I can see
I take a leap into it, I pray I don’t miss and hit the sea.
There’s a shout and shot as someone yells for me to leave
Try and get me out, you’ll stand no chance; it will be for you that they grieve.
The roar of this monster ship the cries and screams of all,
The prow long gone under the aft raised high and then the aft does fall.
The power of the sea is awesome as she devours this mighty ship
The suction then the backwash, takes hold with a deathly grip
She’s gone; the screams are dying down as the people sleep in death
I pull aboard the living, my muscles weakening with every breath.
The cold penetrates my brain but I work on endlessly
Pulling the living and the dead; from this icebound deadly sea.
We are rescued by the Carpathia, as she plucked us from our boat
Blankets and food are handed out; someone wraps me in a coat.
I am one of the survivors of that fateful night so long ago
Running from killing my wife and her lover, but what face’s me I do not know.
Copyright © Mandy Tams The Golden Girl | Year Posted 2012
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