1

Foolish courage,
heaving that
cargo overboard.

Did you glimpse the water?
Chopping whitecaps,
sea-reek, barracudas.

A charnel-house.

Water, blood-spray, bone-spray,
blazing redgrayblack,
painting up the hull.
You must know
solitude condemns you.
Seafoam at the mouth,
they’re ravenous –
Ask not for compassion.

Bone-portents wash ashore,
salvage from a Past-Promise(d) Future.
Can’t quite read the leaden inscriptions –
too long in the depths.

2

Halintar, cumulonimbus,
pressure dropping.
Maybe soon, some of those
blood-water tendrils
you’ve summoned up
will slosh
on the deck,

Drench this wretched boat.

Hold our breath
for a great, terrible, wave.

Take Heart,
No Excuses.