Plight of the Jellyfish by Bob Atkinson

Plight of the Jellyfish

(c)2012 Bob Atkinson

forty guns she had aboard

launched in year eighteen ten

her purpose meant for war upon

those seas so far from France

a simple sailor's hard won dream

a beautiful ship of combat

so wonderfully equipped and manned

through waves she slipped so fast

a captain appointed doubtfully

for reasons not clearly known

sailing skill and wise of decision

were lacking
yet he had backed the throne

headed for the Bank of Arguin

to become embroiled in distress

confused guidance carried her

below the surface to rest

Gericault captured pain of death

inflicted hard upon men of salt

freezing emotions of the struggle

well versed, a canvas well thought out


a painting of the raft
constructed to save the souls
victims of an ego broad
which left them wet and cold

caught out without control

those men held so few options

survival at first was offered

then in the end withdrawn from them

tow ropes were cast off

leaving souls to ponder fate

of those who lacked the basic needs

to reject death as something strange

all who trusted lives with faith

to the captain amateur

felt the wrath of incompetence

as salt waves broke overboard

decisions less smart than bold

the triumph of ego over sense

she blew out her hull from pressure

as she scraped wood

against hard granite

in a later time when a ship followed

in the way of this fine craft

following too close to shore again

resulted again in more pain and death

as a white ship touched the shoals

to sink decks beneath the waves

was revealed that her captain too

broke the hull upon rocks raised

so twice and many more times

a captain left to chance

the survival of ship and men

by lacking common nautical sense

a ship is made for the ocean

upon it gracefully she glides

needing water under keel

without it she will surely die

die the death incongruous

how could he navigate

so close to those rocks of danger

smashing hull upon mortality's open gate?