Tale of the Mary Celeste

by CD Richards

The seventh of November marked the day the ship left port,
to sail from New York Harbor to Genoa, Italy.
But as she pulled out from the dock, no one there could predict
that this would be the last known time a living soul would see
Good Captain Briggs, or his young wife, or daughter (just a babe);
and to this day, we have no clue where they, or crew, might be.

The vessel was discovered one month later, quite intact;
with cargo still on board, but there was water in the hold.
No sign of violence, or clue where those aboard had gone,
the latest entry in the log was fully nine days old.
No lifeboat at the stern, were they required to leave the ship?
Odd speculations surface any time the tale is told.

While some blame pirates, mutineers or even UFOs,
the answers lie off Portugal, in waters dark and deep.
Entirely mysterifical, this strange and puzzling case;
but there are secrets that the ocean, to itself, must keep.
Yet, I can't help but think that coral's growing on their bones,
and on the ocean bed is where they've found their final sleep.

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Today's word: mysterifical (adj.) mystery-creating or mysterious.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

Image: Public domain. The painting shows the original name of the ship ("Amazon") in the comment underneath.

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A true story

A chapter in the book A Potpourri of Poetic Curiosities

Tale of the Mary Celeste

by CD Richards

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