John Greeves
Man of War
One tree where six hundred species live,
one ship of the line, this Man of War.
Made and fashioned
from Common and Sessile oak.
Two thousand trees felled
for futtocks, ribs and knees,
The anatomy of a ship,
limb and bone, hacked and shaped
Three hundred thousand cubits,
for boughs of compass oak
To make one ship
Twenty-seven miles
for stays, hawsers and lines
fifteen thousand square yards
of hemp, jute and flax stretch canvas.
Sheets slapping in the wind,
Thirty guns on the lower deck
lost to the spray of wood anemone.
Twenty guns on the middle deck,
ring-etched to some forgotten age.
Thirty guns on the upper deck,
hidden from the buzzard stoop.
Twelve guns on the fusty forecastle
tucked away in dusty dreys.
The quarter-deck, ten small guns
with oak-apple shot.
A deck cleared in the time it takes to fell a tree.
Cannons prepared in six minutes.
Ram rod, ball, wad, powder.
The rate of fire every two minutes.
Death of men, as instantaneous
as splinters soaking up their blood.
Page(s) 60
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