Terminal Passage from Standard Definition by Steven Ball

so it’s in the Gulf of Panama
they say they’ll make a place
based on cryptocurrency
as units of exchange

so they buy a luxury liner
that docks at Amsterdam
to sail north through the Atlantic
then due south to Pan Am

the ship slides out of harbour
on Sunday after two
some twenty years ago
with just a basic crew

few passengers, the bars well stocked
the kitchens full of food
they loiter on the lido deck
and sleep in ocean view

they hug the coast of Norway
Bergen and Lofoten
then they dock in Tromsø
where passengers embark

cruising Trondheim Fjord
north west Norwiegan Sea
deep water trench and peak
tides rising twice a day

bustle in the dining room
clanking clatter cutlery
illuminated disco floor
the deck shines with water

crowded rows of tables
chairs scrape orange carpet
the waiter comes bringing a tray
of piles of plates and bowls

ornate staircases jewelled with lights
joggers on the upper deck
late afternoon and through the night
hours staring out to sea

north of Jan Mayen Island
and ice is all around
it cracks and growls, and roars and howls
it makes a mournful sound

called to the muster station
the captain makes the call
as though in an emergency
confined to quarters all

from windward blown to leeward
the plague runs through the ship
the passengers all quarantined
within the lower decks

day after night, night after day
they’re stuck, no breath no motion
as idle as a painted ship
upon a painted ocean

upon the seventh seasick day
they make their port of call
a sand so white, and sea so blue
no landing there at all

and now that they can’t disembark
for fear the plague would spread
a ghostly island nation
of the living and the dead

worth their weight in crypto gold
but no one leaves alive
the plague ship floats forever
off the coast of Panama

• Experimental
• London