The Sallow Achieved Once All Was Lost

 

 

     I am awake, and see the light shine

 through a bland window,

   I frown and gather a yawn to sew,

and then exhale an abrupt shadow upon

  a very solitary duvet.

 

     The grit is still within my eye and,

I am not too keen to see the clocks current

   state of sentence,

     stretching, I note the odour

now increasing in age to a place -

   the leather had not yet seasoned,

and there, a feeling of incomplete

returns a frown of knowing.

 

     The auditory begins the day as I hear

people shouting and cussing in the street,

then sirens begin a chorus symphony

   and more and more,

     the shouting insists it is more

than council banter, bully, bulshit and boredom.

 

     I open a window to a summers day,

and Rose’s daughter from next door runs

to the fence and shouts,

     ‘it has gone, disappeared Mister Proson.’

 

     The street is a chaos neighbour looking

skywards and some are crying,

   the remote at hand reaches for the Samsung Camera.

 

2.

 

     In real time, the news is on every channel,

every station the news,

   I switch from channel to channel and still,

      none the wiser - the tears and panic,

 

     Steadied now,

I relax and turn to Al Jazeera

  for something more reliant and there,

     cannot believe my eyes.

 

     Satellite images daunt my early

morning confusion of sea,

   ships are there,

      newscaster heli ported in

   to a body of grey metal upon a vast ocean,

 

     I listen to his panic and tearful commentary,

 

 

“I am here upon this ship

US Frigate Alba and according

to my own ‘app’ this should

actually be approximately eighty miles

West of Mombassa.

The ships Captain has confirmed

with INMARSAT our location

as the frigate continues sailing West

at a moderate speed and yes,

it has gone, the whole lot has gone.

The Captain has confirmed US subs

are in Situ along what was once

the equatorial region from Nigeria to the East

of what was Kenya and there is no indication

of the continent being here.

Russian and Chinese Submariners

have also indicated even at a depth of

seven hundred feet there is no indication

of the Continent of Africa.

 

There is no debris upon the Sea reported from Gibraltar to

what we termed The Horn of Africa,

it is as though she never existed.

 

      Startled, and quivering, I make a call to my wife,

no answer ends a solemn life,

and no life ends a solemn question.

 

          ‘A grit of sleep, never returns again, nor a warmth, we all did envy!’

 

Michael J Waite 30th July 2023.