Sinking of the Yukon - A Video Poem by Patty Mooney
Channel: New & Unique Videos
Date: 2018-09-21

The Sinking of the Yukon

Helicopters hired, news crews confirmed,
stations poised to feed footage to the big
mouth of the outside world.  Even
a commemorative microbrew
fermenting.  The destroyer herself, grey
Canadian retiree, 400 feet
of ocean-soaked steel. Below the water
line a fleet of welders incises her hull 
with cookie cuts in shark and porpoise 
shapes, the faster to usher her down.
Later divers will dart in and out, 
training beams on her silence.
Waterproof cameras
have been strategically focused
to watch her watery descent.

Meanwhile, the boy who wins the "Battleship" 
tournament has fingers that ache
for his prize: to press the red button,
to detonate the sinking at dawn.
The blasts and flashbulbs will burst like clockwork.
Yukon will shudder, let go and come
to her demise, eight minutes tops.

The moon is watching when high seas 
seep in and threaten to sweep her
down right there in the harbor. 
A tugboat is promptly dispatched to haul her
to the burial site, her bow yawing, her bilge 
filling with malt-stained seawater. 
Onboard two custodians who have been asleep
in their berths are roused by the sinking 
and leap into the sea.

Face-first she descends. 
The Pacific pitches Yukon
onto her starboard side.
The only fanfare: streamers of kelp, 
as the boy sleeps, dreaming
explosive dreams of glory.

A real life poetry video by Patty Mooney, a producer at San Diego video production company Crystal Pyramid Productions - https://sandiegovideoproduction.com