Robert M. Simmons  

from Tracings (Poems 1964-1992)     

                  Twin Wrecks

Twin wrecks in a river close to the sea

long beaten by storm inflicted mayhem,

smiling and young you accompanied me

as I walked the bank to photograph them.

A pair of vessels that once freely sailed,

were now gray, sagging forms for worms to eat,

reminders of splendid plans that had failed,

their graceful hulks still wondrous in defeat.

We sat and watched in silent reverie,

an ineffable awe sealing our lips,

as smaller craft passed swiftly out to sea

before these two great heaps that once were ships,

our common wish that we could look as fine

in the final stages of our decline.

                       © 2003 by Robert M. Simmons

Note.  The Hesper and the Luther Little, large, four masted sailing schooners, were abandoned in the Sheepscot River, Wiscasset, Maine in 1932, where they rotted in the water until they were removed sometime late in the twentieth century.  Background courtesy of www.wreckhunter.net .

Photograph of the Hesper and the Luther Little rotting in the Sheepscot River, Wiscasset Maine

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Subjects: poems about, shipwrecks, aging, dignity, sonnets, poetry, poems

Twin Wrecks