The Sinking Ship
Exhausted
And frightened,
Female workers.
Showing off their little prizes,
Dressed in miniature clothing at a playground.
The bigger prizes running and tumbling playfully on the sandy area.
The worker’s yawns filling the air.
Like a contagious,
Sweet disease.
But their hearts,
Beating gloriously.
And their smiles,
Fluorescent in the daylight.
On the outside,
A ship sitting on a bench,
Smiling from afar.
But on the inside,
A wavering,
Sinking thought of agonizing pain.
Spotting the emptiness to the right of it.
No mustache of hope.
That night,
The ship’s dream scripter,
Was not restricted with a scroll of rules.
And the truth was instantly set on the shore,
Speeding rampantly,
In a terrifying motion.
The old,
But innocent doppelganger.
With wide,
Disoriented eyes.
Born mercilessly.
The ship standing straight across from the figure.
Examining its scream.
Twitching its body awake.
Roaring its inboard motor
And shaking uncontrollably.
The other passengers,
Snoring peacefully,
And distantly in their beds.
Oblivious to its distress.
The ship clicking a mechanical pencil.
Reaching for a blink of hope.
Being called a floating ship,
With an aftermath of blank stares.
Pushing around cargos of knowledge.
Swimming farther and farther away from the whirlpool of death.
Gathering reasons for the world to be its baby.
Kelsey James is a junior at the University of Iowa and a transfer student from Des Moines Area Community College. She received an associate degree in liberal arts there in May of 2022 and now she is majoring in creative writing and earning a writing certificate. She has been writing inspirational and educational quotes since she was thirteen years old, poems since April of 2022, and short stories since October of 2022. She is a member of two honor societies called the National Society of Leadership and Success and Phi Theta Kappa. She was recently diagnosed with high-functioning autism. She likes to sing various genres of music and watch movies in the genres of comedy, mystery, and romance. Finally, she is considering a master’s degree in creative writing in the future.