Salvage II

She was never the same again you know
After she limped into port, they left her
High and dry
Her sides scored, her cargo
Excised.  She was left
Filled with absence
Full of shouting echoes,
Slapping water, splintered skin.
She dreamed silently
Of people pale and wan
Of ghostly faces in the dark 
Slapped back or snatched away, 
Remembering
How all hands left her
To cling to spars, to each other, to
Anything, the tossing of human
Flesh like so much flotsam in the dark
White faces bobbing and
Beaten by the vast glassy
Relentlessness,
The dread.

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