Total Wrecks Poem by Ernest Hilbert

1.

So pass a glass and pour the bourbon round.
Sip the smoke that shines a tarnished crown.


2.

We love the way the roasted waves embalm
Our Cyclops figurehead: It dives toward the calm
That claims us, before the black that follows blue.


3.

We're run-through, demasted, ghosts for crew,
Though we plead for some rest at last, some sleep
In an ancient plot, among familial ranks
Of prouder dead, or seafloors freshened with plunder.


4.

Ornate galleons, we list in the squall, roll down
To unload our cargoes into the deep,
Spreading sparks of coins, canvas, ribs, and planks.
On lower decks, the cannons that once thundered
Are cooled, and all the filthy gunners drowned.