The sea's slumber is peaceful,
Quiet,
Romantic,
And soft
That great force of nature
Which stands in the way of humanity
In all its arrogance and greed.
In a place
Which light never reaches,
Where sounds never echo
Where animals dare not tread
Came to rest
One thousand, five hundred and twenty
Human souls
Killed by humanity,
Killed by hubris,
Killed by the arrogance of a bygone age.
But it is not over.
Our narcisstic humanity,
Our confident world
Is no different
From the one in which
Five hundred immigrants,
Five hundred crew,
Five hundred poor souls
Remained trapped, awaiting their fates
Of a cold, numbing death
Stoically, honorably,
As the 'noble' wealthy sailed away
In the safety of lifeboats
Oblivious to the plight of the people below.
Oh! If humanity could only see
Every man, woman, and child
Lost on that fateful night
Their long, hard lives,
Their evolving relationships,
Their dreams for America
All leading up to a cold, icy death
In the North Atlantic
With an unmarked grave
Leaving only a broken heart
As proof that they ever existed.
Where they lie now,
It is quiet
A pair of shoes here,
A glasses frame there.
A doll's head,
A porcelain teacup.
A golden watch
Its latch still clasped
As if surrounding an invisible wrist.
That wrist has long since rotted away,
Taken back into the sea
As the sea reclaims all of its victims.
To it, we are just flashes of light,
Mortal collections of flesh and bone
Which move and speak
For a hundred years or less
Then return to the Earth
From whence they came.
The sea is unforgiving,
Powerful,
Yet just.
We cannot move it,
Cannot change it,
Cannot take it away.
We can only die in it.
Is this what we want?
To see our arrogance and overconfidence
Take the lives of 1500 innocent souls
Only to see us turn around,
Shrug,
And we go on with our lives.
It has happened before,
It will happen again.
We can prevent it,
We need only try.
May our arrogance be ended
And may our hubris be gone.
And may the dead of Titanic rest in peace.
