Beneath the Wreck

Underneath the shroud

of a god’s greatest tear,

or is it the cloud

of a man’s ancient fear?

Four hundred years...

a warship went down,

defeated by the allies of reef and storm.

A host of sailors’ lives,

lost now through time,

but here they have a home –

their spirits returned to life.

For local people say

the wooden hull is haunted –

hear the cries of the seamen,

an echoing cacophony,

an undersea symphony

for human voices, a hundred strong,

to the strings of this temperate ocean swell.

Take a dive and see...

the players in this orchestra

are only mystical in their variety

and their ability

to conjure your imagination,

or your wish for what might be...

Here was an adventure

of the brave men of the seas

and their courage to face the might foam,

or succumb to press gang harmony,

or flee an unpleasant home.

Find your fortune beneath the waves –

there was none for those

brave men who chose

to be a nation’s slaves.

© Andrew Williams