Page:Main Street and other poems, Kilmer, 1917.djvu/81

MAIN STREET AND OTHER POEMS

THE WHITE SHIPS AND THE RED (continued) White as the ice that clove her

That unforgotten day,

Among her pallid sisters

The grim Titanic lay.

And through the leagues above her

She looked aghast, and said:

"What is this living ship that comes

Where every ship is dead?"

The ghostly vessels trembled

From ruined stern to prow;

What was this thing of terror

That broke their vigil now?

Down through the startled ocean

A mighty vessel came,

Not white, as all dead ships must be,

But red, like living flame!

The pale green waves about her

Were swiftly, strangely dyed,

By the great scarlet stream that flowed

From out her wounded side. [ 75 ]