No more political meetings. No more inspections by so called experts. No more collective of heads in rapt apprehension. Just get another ship out there now!
(Akata Hodgkinson)

Abandoned Ship by Mere Taito

She just lay there on her side
Where else?
A heavy swollen metallic beast
Unable to move
Heralding images
Of a mare convulsing
Wanting so desperately to
Vomit its burden

Her ferrous kapkapa
Oozing a lethal serum of rust
Spewing more as lightening
Gnashes its wounds
Thinning crust, scab and paint
Ominously drawing closer
To her toxic child
A Damien,
An atua
Liquid and volatile,
Nestled within amniotic drums
That jostle, clang and roll
As nature,
Daft and thick as she sometimes
Can be, like a woman without
Direction, reason or mercy
Blows in ripple after ripple

Beneath this calamity,
Poseidon and his army of mermaids
And coral hunters
wretch and belch;
Her rusty pus has diffused its colour
Into their amorous scales and barnacles
Flake and pale;
The scent of disease
Pungent and thick,
Suspends
As most things do in water

Terra firma,
burning,
hosts a different battle
A different fire
A different canon
A heart for a catapult
And a mouth for an arrow,
Poseidon’s allies unleash
An intentious volley of dissent
Spiked with penned petitions
Shooting straight for inertia
Snoozing shamefully under blankets
Of mute discussions and
lethargic inspections

She is without child now
This beast
Far removed and standing
Inertia did rouse,
With drool and daze,
Raised a flag
And clumsily cantered over

Nature and her posse
Sit on restless horses
Still.
Very Still.
Silent and breathing.
Watching and waiting. 

TO CHARGE AGAIN!