I saw them once in Naples
those giant cruise liners
lined up along the harbour wall
each like a multi-tiered cake at
an expensive wedding party
Not my kind of ships
more like office blocks
in busy city centres
or hotels in the Middle East
with luxury swimming pools
Someone said the passengers
didn’t always come ashore
“I mean why would they
want to they’ve got
everything they need?”
Their sheer size made
them look invincible
surely no ocean could
be deep enough to
cover them with water
So today with pictures
of Costa Concordia
leaning at twenty degrees
I said a prayer for those
who died and remembered
that big ships still sink
in deep or shallow seas.
© David Subacchi
Cruise captain 'committed errors', say ship's owners
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David Subacchi is a civil servant who has been writing poetry seriously for just over a year. He hopes to publish his first English collection in 2012.
