On the Song on the Astronauts on the Ship on the Swell

for #JoCoCruiseCrazy

How easy a state to dismiss, the whole of us
overtired, overexcited, hung over, our footing
undermined by a subtly roiling sea
while we forestall the final
moments of a journey nearly done.

In sixteen hours the last of us
will disembark and scatter, diaspora concurrently
overwrought and insufficient.

Yet none of us, except in jest, in the six
seconds between the end and the applause,
attempts a feint. We together endure six silent,
grieving seconds for a shattered craft
sixteen minutes from home, on the sixth
night we’ve known one another.

Although we didn’t know,
this is all we wanted to bring home.

 

Liner note