Ghost Ship, by Amy Baskin

Into the Mystic, photography by Robert Dash (USA). Contemporary. Click image for artist site.

Ghost Ship
 
Mary Celeste you look adrift
encompassed from keel to topmast of fibrous ivory
linen tendons disheveled but seaworthy
your last log entry was dated ten days ago
personal belongings appear undisturbed
where are your captain and his wife
their two-year-old daughter
the crew of seven
at this moment there is no sign of wind
approaching except for storm cloud grey
azure water hash marked by brigantines
are you there
 
you are the banded hamstring connecting sky to water
the space between them looks fathomable
incalculable intelligence of ether and aqua
somehow keeps you afloat
how to measure it do they even touch
do they interlace their fingers
cup your keel in their hands from rudder to hull
if you’re indeed wet do the sea salts and chill air
surround you or slip through you
are the heat and cold real
 
riddle me this
barrels of denatured alcohol and a crew
composed of parallel arrays of collagen
closely packed together elastin proteoglycans
copper manganese calcium cartilaginous zones
reticulin fibers vascular walls capillary membranes
all are entangled in a sealed hold
atoms are mostly empty space
nothing stands still sinew is flexible but
makes for inelastic bulkheads
it is impossible to predict when a particular atom will decay
your passengers may be simultaneously both alive and dead
I fear unresolved suspicions
your inconclusive nature fosters mystery
false details of methylated spirits and fantasy
in a state of quantum superposition dense irregular sheaths
connect to random subatomic events
that may or may not occur
show me truth both sacred and profane
open your hatch

Amy Baskin
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Amy Baskin’s work is featured in What Rough Beast, Fire Poetry Journal, The Ghazal Page, Postcards, Poetry & Prose, Dirty Chai, Panoply, Riddled With Arrows, and more.  She is a 2016 Willamette Writers Kay Snow Poetry award recipient for her poem “About Face.”