Cover of The Cruise

There’s a ship that sits in the harbor
Premonitions abound in the air,
In all of its splendor and glory
For some it clairvoyantly causes a scare.

With all that’s been printed in the travel brochure
There’s a line that says “this trip is free,”
The travelers should be lined up for miles around
But happenings on the gang plank cause many to flee.

Most of the passengers are forced to get on,
The seagulls for some reason look like vultures,
The sun casts shadows, shadows, shadows
The travel manifesto says, “prepare for strange cultures.”

Intermittent dark clouds loom obliquely above
It’s announced “all aboard that’s going aboard,”
On this trip few persons alight on their own,
As the ship prepares to leave the shore.

The sounds of the ship’s engines are deafening
And yet one could hear a pin fall,
This is an unearthly paradox
In which some say “they hear a strange call.”

A few do try to turn back, they do
But lions, fierce lions, block the way from below,
How odd in their roar a certain kindness is heard,
They “help” the “doubters” who don’t want to go.

The mystery of this journey
Is not fully found in this rhyme,
There is only a hint of what it might be
Perhaps it is something to do with space-time.