“Battleship Chains Amid the Still Life Sky”

The day after was worse,

The sick stomach pit now
Enveloped the body whole,
Ladybugs even be bopped
With less grace and aplomb.

Ghost ships from WWII

Patrolled the sallow September skies
After the secret of steel was
Exploited in a paint-by-numbers
Simplicity and death scythe certainty.

Ahoy! All ye dead sailors of the Pearl.

Joined now by less sovereign
Wage definers and babble-shoots,
Subjugated to jumping sans the
Mandated golden parachute.

When diamond shards rain the

Covers of green-backed streets,
Top hats morph into Gunnery helmets
Worn by Captain Charles on the USS Cole,
Feathered chapeau in a G.A. Custer dreamscape.

Going down cripple creek with all the

Cripples, ladders with broken rungs,
Rookies with broken lungs,
Relegated to hero for a day status
In the charter schools of Kingdom Come.