Force of the Blue and Natalie: Poems of War and Peace Nick Armbrister poems
- NICK ARMBRISTER/JBS
- Aug 31, 2020
- 4 min read
Force of the Blue and Natalie: Poems of War and Peace
Nick Armbrister
Thread That Binds
While I walk down the middle of the icy road by the park in the snow, I wonder how many hearts were broken on that Baltic night. 9k dead, each a family member, husband, wife, son, daughter.
In my mind’s eye, I see the Captain standing on the tilting side of his ship, the Gustloff. Fire axe in hand, he tries in vain to shatter safety glass on the viewing deck. Many people are on the verge of drowning or freezing to death in the cold water. His futile taps on the glass are for nothing but at least he tried.
How many who died were related to people who murdered Jews or butchered Russian civilians over the preceding years? When it’s the Devil’s actions, all are guilty and must die in a war of Armageddon. Hell is getting mighty fucking crowded! Thread that binds is broken now, lies at the bottom of the Baltic. War is so wrong.
Thielbek, Deutschland and Arcona
I wish I wasn’t wrong! I thought three ships perished in the freezing Baltic ocean. But it’s five. The Soviet Union sunk three but the Royal Air Force got three! The names mean little in the 21st Century.
Back then it was a different story, three big ships crammed full of thousands of people being taken to hell knows were. Hit by British airpower and dispatched to a watery grave, haven’t we been here before? Were these events covered up for decades? Due to who were on the ships? Allied prisoners of war and concentration camp victims? Killed on the two ships, drowning in the sea and finished by the SS?
Thielbek, Deutschland and Arcona, number four, five and six in the majestic old ships, lost in the Bay of Neustadt, adding ten thousand dead to the horror of the Baltic. An awful true fairytale of five ships sunk and up to thirty thousand dead.
The truth can be horrific like some trashy paperback novel written by a second rate author, wouldn’t it be nice if this was fake? Remember their names: Gustloff, Goya, Steuben, Thielbek, Deutschland and Arcona. I’m very sorry; I don’t know the name of the thirty thousand who perished. Only God does and he is silent...
Deep Blue Sea
I love the colour of the sea, the sound of the waves on the cliffs
and the freedom the sea holds.
Everyone has seen the sea and has run through the surf on some local beach.
Sailors still see mermaids after one too many vodkas,
shipwrecks bring the end of many a ship on razor sharp rocks.
Men of all races are still drawn to the mystery of the ocean and to
Her beauty.
Pirates across time come and pillage the cargo vessels of the sea.
Millions of ships have sunk in the perilous sea, all gone; but
they still exist down on the sea bed in their tragic and shattering beauty.
Even today the sea Gods wait for their next victims, yes it could be you…
End of a Supertanker
A million tons of ship supported by the ocean, an engineering marvel carrying so much oil so safely, this is all fine until the gremlins strike, creating havoc.
A storm races over the horizon crashing into the ship sending water onto the deck and rolling the ship as if it were a toy.
The double hull rips open under terrible stress spilling oil into the sea; in seconds the tanker begins to sink breaking in two. Her crew never stood a chance as the back part goes down first in four miles of black water.
Years later people ask, was such a large ship necessary? Now it is too late as forty men are dead, a valuable ship lost forever and catastrophic environmental damage done.
Sea
Come with me to the sea
To set me free.
Like a summer bee
And fill me
So full of glee.
Juniper’s Daughter - Trip
It was cloudy and we were lost in our airplane. A day trip in my brother’s plane turned out to be a nightmare – we were bloody lost! Our fuel was low. I kept an anxious eye upon the fuel gauge needle; it moved in only one direction, downwards to the empty mark. A fine mess!
My brother grimaced and tapped the gauge. He too thought it was lying! Grimly he spoke: “This ain’t good Lee. We’ll have to ditch in the sea in ten minutes when our gas is gone. There’s no sign of the coast and the compass is bust.”
I looked aghast at my brother. “What?”
“In the sea. A force landing. I hope you can swim,” he added.
Our plane flew lower and the engine stuttered. The grey sea looked menacing under equally grey clouds. We were going in! The engine stopped dead. We went down.
“Oh shit!” I shouted.
“Yes,” my bro commented.
Our little aircraft spiralled down to the cold ocean. No more words were said; this was it. Time to die!
Juniper’s Daughter and her disc emerged from the grey clouds to rescue the people and their plane just before it touched from the sea. It was a piece of cake for the witch. She grinned and engaged the tractor beam to grab the plane when it was ten meters above the sea. Two lives had been saved. How would the two men take being rescued by an immortal witch in an alien space craft? Would humans never learn about getting lost over the ocean? She would teach them a few basic navigation skills.
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