christine hannigan

remember them

Man. Chocolate, cigarettes.

when prisoner-made poppies
flop on the lapels of patriots
empire-enamoured and
lulled by myth,

you sink into the sofa’s blue-grey, nodding
at our smoke trails
musing on what flesh fodder
shot to flotsam
rationed on lifeboats


—-Fresh water.

They sure knew life’s simplest pleasures.

From the Atlantic: “Last minute escape from a vessel torpedoed by a German sub. The vessel has already sunk its bow into the waves, and her stern is slowly lifting out of the water. Men can be seen sliding down ropes as the last boat is pulling away.”