Ghost ships

There is a ghostly craft

That floats

Beyond the horizon

Carrying the cargo

Of all the choices

I did not

Could not

Make

The older we grow

The more we unload

Realising

There is only one path we can walk this life

And only so much we can carry

Certain people, certain baggage

So

We bid farewell

As the swell

Carries other parts of ourselves

The ones that did not draw breath

But waited instead

For the shake of the head

Before sadly turning away

Picking up their tickets of leave

Ferried away to the ghost ship

All those lives I did not live

Disappearing

*Perhaps that’s why I love the ocean so much – it brings me closer to the other parts of self I wasn’t able to give life to.

Header photo – Freemantle Port taken a few years ago on a trip with Steve down south.

I’m changing up my Instagram and adding more of my own photography when time allows. Find me here https://www.instagram.com/kate_duff_poetry/

15 thoughts on “Ghost ships

  1. Great work. I especially like these lines:

    ‘The ones that did not draw breath

    But waited instead

    For the shake of the head

    Before sadly turning away’

    • I love swimming in it Len. We have a place we holiday – the waves can be wild and pick you up and dump you after throwing the body all over the place. There are wonderful look outs where the ocean stretches forever – it truly is immense.

  2. How I fell in love with the ocean; I once went to a public beach in a beautiful place called Baobab Beach in Kilifi Kenya, Its a public beach so usually you expect to find a couple of people or a few hundreds on holidays.

    This day whoever, everything was so different, on a beach that is more than 2.5 km in length I was all alone, all alone with myself until I realized that I was there with the ocean…

    Nowadays, I work mostly as a marine surveyor and yes sometimes while traveling by sea I feel like a ghost ship. How do ghost ships feel???๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜Š

    • Thanks for your thoughtful comment Charles. I donโ€™t know how a ghost ship would feel but I imagine it would be empty, hollow and a little sad but maybe thatโ€™s the wrong way to look at it. Perhaps ghost ships are the party cruise – no expectations, no cares and no onerous responsibility to get things right ๐Ÿ˜

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