One Night on a Navy Ship

Still as glass the ocean slept, no wind to stir the air while drifting in the water, so far from land that not even a gull took wing

Illuminated by just the stars for the moon had hid her countenance that night, not one wave

Lapping at the ship’s sides, the vastness of the Pacific dwarfed by the immensity of the silence

Eerie and ever pressing on the senses

Nothing for miles except water: it itself was a dark and noiseless grave; as my father tells it: he

Could hear his own heart beating while his mind - left to its own devices -

Entertained thoughts of the deep