Shipwreck Off the California Coast

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BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Shipwreck Off the California Coast

#1 Post by BobBradshaw » 24 Aug 2021, 05:16

Shipwreck Off The California Coast


In the past I've dragged up pewter cups,
candle holders, vases from China, buttons,
plates, and a captain's sextant.

I can't go on intruding
into a crew's and passengers' privacy
without more financing.
All day I scan for storms, for the bottom
to be disturbed. A sleepwalking figure
of sand kicking up clues
is what I pray for.

Surely the edge of a chest
loaded with silver will soon stick up
from the sea's floor.

My thirty year search
for financing will finally be over.
I'll be able to afford
bigger expeditions
with high tech equipment.

But if I end up as poor
as a horseshoe crab, scrounging
the sea's floor for scraps,
list my name
among those
of passengers and crews,
their lives lost.

We all disappear so easily,
leaving little behind--
like the corset 2 years ago that I picked up,
somehow intact. The lady missing,
as if she'd slipped out of her harness
to meet her lover.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Shipwreck Off the California Coast

#2 Post by FranktheFrank » 24 Aug 2021, 12:49

Interesting poem, Bob. I guess the life of a beachcomber.
The last three lines are especially good.
A change to your normal tercets.

Could the title include: beachcombing?

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Shipwreck Off the California Coast

#3 Post by BobBradshaw » 24 Aug 2021, 19:44

Thanks, Frank…. Glad the close works.

It’s about scavenging shipwrecks for a living.

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