Word came
that the ship was lost:
No survivors.
Her beloved
perished amid a storm
In her dreams
she sees him
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
sinking
sinking
sinking
drifting
drifting
drifting
on her
tears.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I suppose this could be about Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon, but in fact, it came from listening to The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman. It also reminds me of a family story.
My grandfather was a ship captain on the St. Lawrence Seaway. One day, a knock came on the door, and my grandmother was told gravely that his ship had sunk, and he was lost. This would no doubt have been far more traumatic, had grandpa not been sitting in the living room at the time.
Shawn L. Bird 
Beautiful poem. And wow, what a story. The person imparting the grave news must have had quite an astonished look on his face! Glad it was nothing serious.
It just occurs to me, that last week when I was going through old Montreal city directories, I saw another Georges Duguay who was listed as a sailor. I’ll bet he was the one who actually died. 😦 Poor guy.
I loved the repetition in this. It had a nice beat to it 🙂
Thanks, Anna.
Sad story, now now Mrs Bird…..
It was! Very sad, since he was supposed to be getting his Jewish wife and her family out of Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, and the shock of hearing about the boat sinking made her lose their baby.
Ooo yaa, now you’ve made my day, sadness….
lol Context is everything.
I don’t like sad endings. Life is chocked too full of them. I like the story at the end, your grandmother being spared the grief of bad news because granddad there with her proving the bad news to be false.
It is full of them, but facing up to sadness and embracing grief is an important part of the process of acceptance. Happy memories will intercede, but you have to accept the sadness to welcome them.
Yes. It’s a beautiful poem.
This happened to my grandfather’s favorite model, Eleanor Thornton in 1916. See my site page and scroll to the last picture. We don’t forget.
http://rilette.com/page37.html
Thanks for sharing!
[…] – Shawn L. Bird […]
I am slightly alarmed that this poem is going to a ‘sunnyside’ blog. I’m going to hide the sun! lol The tragedy was not averted!
Not the poem; your anecdote, which is all I was referring to. 🙂
I hope you liked the poem, too. 😉
Oh, certainly I did! But not something sunny, for sure. 🙂
Your anecdote is one of those humourous / good news stories I like to highlight at that blog. 🙂
I love it so much. I just want to go hug someone I love. Thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it.