Littered

There they were, 
All littered,
Bodies scrunched up,
Pushed together,
Blankets curled around them,
Heads on cannibalized seats.

There’s a pile of rags
In the shadows.
A body stretched out,
Across rows of seats,
Jammed between, it’s moving slightly,
Still breathing.  Must be alive!

I went outside to escape the crush.
The waves tossed our boat starboard and port.
I staggered in the darkness and held the ropes
As my face was slapped with an ice-cold rain.
I pushed against a fierce wind to get back in,
Slid through the door to the parched dry air

I laid down and nodded off. 
I woke in shafts of light
I saw again the bodies I’d seen before
They were scattered everywhere,
Turning, uncurling, wakening, 
Gaining shape, re-forming.

Journey’s end, sliding into dock,
We’d escaped.  Safe, at last.

© Christopher 2024