The Mothball Fleet

Ian Walters

1.
all children know
that old ships germinate
when left alone

sprout loud, stringy wires
mildewed copper, corroded flashing
mostly-chewed-through conduit
old veiny remains, kinked, slowly leaking
a light-blotting ecstasy of escape
a bloom of long feelers in the murk
when these reach bottom silt
soft, clean-filtered bay-mud

they will pervert it

they will fix the ship in place
rot-metal gut-cord, varicose, hooked
dragging the host down, down
coughing and screaming and hissing
to bleed for a war
they were never meant to fight

2.
when it catches,
a desert seed quickens
and radiates a toxin
killing all nearby life
so that it may have water

and in the dry gold of the sea of cortez

in the baja badlands

there is a fleet

of white ships