Warm Green Sea

By:  Garland Davis

condition three steaming, napping at a table,

thrown across the mess decks, our body slams a table,

we’re rocked backward, forward, side to side,

to the sound of metal rending, to the sound of explosion,

like a voice out of hell, just opened somewhere far and near

hours and minutes pass,

 

the deck steadies, we scramble to our feet,

the general alarm sounds, running feet, screaming,

flashlights, smoke, someone moaning,

emergency lighting, bodies flung into a corner,

yelling for corpsman, take control, get stretchers,

bodies moved toward medical, fire hoses,

 

flashing lights through the window, not a window,

hole in the bulkhead, guns firing, more explosions,

world heels as ship moves, high speed turn,

toward the gunfire, shouldn’t we go the other way,

lighting returns, tables torn asunder,

deck red with blood, firing stops, start cleaning detail

 

gunfire stops, ship slows speed, try to secure tables,

captain is there, questions that I answer,

through tears tell of bodies and blood,

the corpsman takes my arm, settles me into the stretcher,

the blood, dripping off my fingers,

staining my clean deck, sleep comes

 

i lie, a flag as my cover, a weight at my feet

man with a cross at my head, words said,

board tilts, slide down,

warm green sea embraces me