Tags
comic, death, History, Horror, Humanity, Life, loss, philosophical, philosophy, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, sea, spiritual, Universe, Water
ALL BEFORE
before we recognize
the horror
know the terror
we must first appreciate
the comedy
this story
must hit us like cold
midnight water
gallons of it numbing our
bodies, edging above our mouths
filling our lungs
we are so desensitized
only hope is for some
self-administered ritual
of shock
therapy
something to put the heart
of our humanity upon
the sharp point of a pin
Oh this joke boat
this sardine-jammed hull
with its desperate human cargo
lost its balance, toppled over
sank
like a stone
took hundreds to the bottom
ordinary people, worst people,
best people
a random sample
at least
from point of
view
of the sea
and there
so close to the cradle of
all I have learnt about
the civilization
that
shaped me
though would have deemed
me Barbarian
within sight, almost, of
that great legacy
all we are left to talk about
is the ruin of hope, the prayer
we never
get to live through
the ratcheted intensity
of this primal fear
in time
we can try to come to
terms with this spiritually,
philosophically
ask the Universe why
Oh why, the snuffing out
of so much light
the cold, brutal drowning
of so much possibility
speak to the sea
ask it so many
questions
life and
death questions
waves
crashing to shore
has
heard them all before