Passay

The Captain stood on his ship’s deck
proudly holding a stack of very old books,
they hadn’t been in print for years
with the words faded and unreadable.

But his mind recalled their seafaring wisdom,
he refused to consider any new version
even though he had changed to a vessel
whose inner workings and repair needs
were not covered by the out of date writings.

Now in the siege of a violent storm soaked sea,
his orders were bellowed in phrases
that hadn’t been used in years,
the crew were confused and chaos came
as the waves began to flood the decks.

Oh none had read up on panic
when the boat began to sink,
since they had all be trained
by an teacher with a modern instruction manual,
which didn’t include any section on drowning
because that was considered ancient times.
With drowning now being only treated as a myth
thanks to the new innovative technology
making ships, in theory, unsinkable.

What insanity loomed in the deluge of crests,
eventually all the crew and the captain
were washed over the side and drowned.

Finally after the end of the raining rage,
everything was gone from view
totally swallowed by the ocean,
except for one old book
not even read by the captain.

It covered the used of life preservers
and it was floating on top
of one of those white rings.
None of the ship’s crew or staff
had even understood
what it had as a purpose
from spending all their time
watching fantasy films
about mermaids.