Shipwrecks
In the seas of time
I looked at the soundings
and found
what was --
raft of survivors
from The Medusa
the few not eaten
murdered drowned
cast off
adrift for days
swallowed by greed
& The Lusitania sunk
all its pretty chickens
and their dams
gone down
in minutes
for war gods’ feasts
I checked again
and found what is–
swamped, overloaded boats,
drowned & half-dead
refugees unwelcome
in their promised lands
fleeing hunger –
they fed the seas
pearls their eyes,
hollow bones
unburied ghosts
full fathoms deep
Unpublished poem by Phyllis Beck Katz
In the seas of time
I looked at the soundings
and found
what was --
raft of survivors
from The Medusa
the few not eaten
murdered drowned
cast off
adrift for days
swallowed by greed
& The Lusitania sunk
all its pretty chickens
and their dams
gone down
in minutes
for war gods’ feasts
I checked again
and found what is–
swamped, overloaded boats,
drowned & half-dead
refugees unwelcome
in their promised lands
fleeing hunger –
they fed the seas
pearls their eyes,
hollow bones
unburied ghosts
full fathoms deep
Unpublished poem by Phyllis Beck Katz