Even before our ship started to lean,
you had found another vessel or two
to swim for just in case we went down.
In retrospect I think they ran us aground,
whether or not that was their intention,
and you had a lifeboat ready and waiting
to join another crew sailing into the sunset
the second we began taking on water.
But the Titanic was kind enough
to provide a ballroom for the mermaids,
and in that vein you generously left me
in the wreck of our life on the shore
with all the material I needed to create
a more seaworthy craft for the next journey,
this time with a double wheel for foul weather
and an anchor that holds against rising tides.
This was written as part of National Poetry Writing Month 2021, sparked by a line from an article in The Evening News in Wilkes-Barre, PA, from April 25, 1912, as seen on the Yesterday’s Print Twitter account: “It was kind of the Titanic to provide a ballroom for mermaids.”