I watch it slowly leave
the river and enter the Bay,
its bow parting the calm
with an efficient quiet.
Another hour and the ship
will be cutting through
the swells of the open sea.
Men in orange overalls
lean on railings at the stern
looking back
over a long wake.
I try to imagine what thoughts
are washing across
their minds. Perhaps
it's the menu for that night
or the blurred monotony
of seeing another foreign port
with its cranes and marshalling
yards decompose
into the fading light.
Or more likely the thoughts
of love ones waiting for them
at home.
Seagulls follow them out
and spiral over the ship's
dissolving churn,
dipping down into the water,
lifting up again on wings lit
by the last rays of a setting sun.
There is a sadness
to the sight of departing ships -
it touches something deep
as if calling up the echoes
of ancestors saying their last
goodbyes to sons and daughters,
siblings and the grandchildren
they will never meet.
Categories:
marshalling, family, goodbye, sea, voyage,
Form: Free verse
SIMPLICITY
Simplicity
Incubates
Marshalling
Pleasant
Loving
Ineffable
Calm
In
Tortured
Youth
Dave Austin
Categories:
marshalling, simple,
Form: Acrostic
COPLA SESENTA Y UNO
: This Bad Guy World
Even just cause makes not good war
If you attack you put to waste:
Good does no harm
Marshalling defence at your door
Can make bloody retreat in haste:
Shrieks of alarm
If you let the Dao lead the Way
Bad Guys’ll jump up and down in vain:
To tumble down
Even apt choices bring dismay
While you listless wait and bear pain:
Time’s the rogue clown
© T. Wignesan –
Paris, 2014
Categories:
marshalling, conflict, war,
Form: Dramatic Monologue
Sickness incredulously slipped the noose
wormed its way past healthy constitutions
and lodged spear like into Adams’ rib
Tenaciously Life held back
marshalling the frontline
lymphocytes funneled nutrients
from Mother’s soup
into the societal fray.
Categories:
marshalling, health
Form: Free verse