sun-streaked and night-blinded
the ship reported three hundred
and ninety-eight tons.
On passage from Canada to Liverpool
atlantean winds dislodged the mast-tops
rendered still in violent seas
"The crew had insufficient water and food for the 35 days that they were adrift"
at first, cheese and bread
was rationed, stores emptied--
the slow knife of starvation
twists in the mind,
taboos become
necessities of survival
then call for excess
one of the mornings,
in the cold-frost of the fog,
Mr. Wilson didn't wake up
between sea-swell and wood-groans
you could hear knife-clatter
the sharpening on whet stones
the men quartered his corpse
cut him into fourths,
as with many of these documented cases,
first they remove the
most human elements
(Head, arms, legs)
reduce Mr. Wilson to a memory
and his corpse rendered
into inhuman meat
above deck,
after skinning the torso
they hung the flesh on pins
on the bulwarks to dry.
as more men died,
more meat was dried
their hearts were rich.
When the HMS Blonde
found the six survivors
some corpses
only had their hearts eaten.
-- Parker Galloway is a teacher and poet in New Orleans. He is writing a book of poems called What Are These Few More Hours? His work is published in various places online.
