Submersible

Submersible

I have driven down deep past the blank coral faces

I have driven down deep to the green – green – green 

Submersible. 

Some strange science fiction, my cyclops face

Cuts a hole through the gloom

And legless, I crawl –

Don’t ask me to tell you; you can’t understand 

No, the dark has no language, I’ve nothing to show –

 But the sea’s odd debris which clings to my skin 

And the prick of the saline still in my veins.

Submersible. 

There‘s an old iron hull which rots in the sand

Inter silt and shell

The seaweed shroud.

But I’ll rise again 

With my verdigris scars,

And the tang of the sea-air a bruise on my face.

Oh perhaps I’ve ‘come used to the murk and the dark

My pupils are wide; they cannot stand the light.

Submersible.

I’ve been down before 

And I’ll go down some more

Yes it’s cold but familiar. 

But sometimes, through twilight – some other vessel

 With their own searching beam

And eye reaches eye 

Through the fathomless black.