In the mariners’ church,

those dredged from the sea

laid out like fresh catch.

 

Identified by candlelight,

dried foam at their mouth,

the sea changed them.

 

Carried to the limits of water,

the waves rescinded their promise,

leaving them white as whalebone.

 

Lastly seeing

the ultramarine world

they occupied completely;

 

their ship impossibly stalled overhead,

skulking like some legendary creature

in the reachless dropdown light.

 

Below, the bones,

wrack and sump

of those never recovered;

 

while the fortunate ones

lay patiently in the drowned room,

waiting to be given back their names.