Pearls [on the sinking of the Titanic]
After the lifeboats had gone
The wealthiest men in America
Stood together on deck
Listing to one last waltz
Dreaming of Vienna and Wagner.
Dressed in dinner jackets
Their fingers stained with nicotine
The fires in their hands
Reflecting upon
The yellow Smokestacks of a certain
unsinkable
White Star Liner
one night in April 1912.
Perhaps the mermaids are better dancers
than the cold cold wives
whose pearls have
already
returned to the sea.
–Published in Analecta : The Student Literary Magazine of The University of Texas at Austin
