Diary

“Hold!” I shouted, clenching the wheel
Ice and bilge assaulted the deck
rushing water sweeping over all
The black sky offered no light other than cracks of lightning to glimpse the terror of the scene

The power of the sea grasped my ankles and shins and knees
and it climbed my body as I tried to command
as though I was in control
Colder than my corpse would be, I turned to my men
Shouting instructions gesturing wildly,
my cries being overwritten by peals of Biblical thunder

The bottom of the parabolic
and she drinks into her doom so deeply
overwhelmingly
my eyes add a few drops of saltwater to our tomb

a terrible crash into oblivion
water cold to shock the heart into death
strikes everyone, and it hits chest high
the swell stirs and pulls everything
into it

My vessel rose against herself
The wood moaning in agony
Each rising gave to the fantasy that one more crash and we’d be safe
that somehow we’d be past the storm
And as the hull plunged, I braced again
eyes wild and teeth clenched to bleeding
and the terrible black beauty of mother ocean sank to meet us

Frost and foam clung to my beard
The wind drank my words into oblivion’s belly
And bubbles froze to my lips as I said
“Let’s watch another cartoon!”

– The Diaries of Captain Kangaroo