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Flags of Convenience

Flecks of sea rust
trailed phantom ships,

their crews (it’s said)
marooned in paradise.

In this crash economy
we had no choice—

fight the fishing fleets,
reflag at sea.

An old fax machine
wired to a car battery

sent our request to join
some landlocked navy.

We lined up behind
flags of convenience

leading us forever
from our green homes.

While sharks & frigates circled,
I reckoned the distance

between two hearts
and almost made the leap.

This came from reading a series of articles on piracy in the Naval War College Review (Summer 2009, Vol. 62 No. 3).

Published inPoems

5 Comments

  1. There’s a wonderful sense of dereliction and decay here, that sense helped greatly by the laconic two-line stanzas. Powerful and atmospheric.

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