The Tide is High

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the local dispute with the RNLI, the singular action by the RNLI to lock their building and remove the lifeboat, rather than allowing an interim arrangement, is putting lives at risk. Will the RNLI take responsibility if lives are lost because of their precipitate action? This poem looks at what might happen. They need to put something else in place soon, either the existing crew or a new one.

The Tide is High

Waves crash on rocks, gulls cry
Dark storm clouds across the sky
The siren call, the song that calls
Poseidon’s deep, shipwreck falls
A call goes out, come aid me now
The waves crash thunder over bow
She dips and falls, then rises high
Swell so turbulent it meets the sky
But no one came, no listener heard
No listening radio, to hear a word
It is all locked up, and empty still
Heeds not despair, the cry so shrill
Up she goes, the boat once more
Down much deeper, ocean roar
The tide is high,still worse to come
The heavy rain pounds like a drum
Their faces white, and full of fear
And rocks grow every closer, near
No lifeboat now, was taken away
And how those sailors rue that day
Abandon ship, she’s sinking fast
And on the deck, a broken mast
The water is cold, freezing, ice
Bodies caught as within a vice
Another boat coming, with delay
Their distance just too far away
Find they bodies, floating, dead
Now words of comfort must be said
To relatives of those, they mourn
The passing to that final bourne
First duty: to save lives at sea
No one heard the dead men’s plea

Just too busy scoring points to care
Now commit to the deep, in prayer