Doldrums

Still, calm, pacific waters

And tranquil placidity—

A vast expanse of ceaseless seas

A languid cage of windless skies.

We have reached the dreaded doldrums

Where the wind blows not

And where ships float

In directionless nothingness.

Just weeks ago,

We hurtled through towering crests

And plunged unabated through troughs.

The storms scream like whistling sirens

But our sail trudged onward and onward,

With our mighty and proud figurehead

Piercing through seafoam spray and mists.

Eurus drove through our mast

And we sped along with our pride

To the New World we have yet to discover.

But now we sit like lame ducks

On an immovable serene

That bore stark contrast to the hubris

That filled our once glorious days.

We stand moored on humid stagnation

And the ghost of the horses we threw overboard

Have sprouted into mildew whilst we stay becalmed.

The storms we once braved through

Streak mockingly across the sky,

But there is no wind to move us—

There is none at all.

Stagnant, maddening, frozen waters

And tempestuous rigidity—

It has been weeks since we have come to be

Yet the seas prove to be our worst enemy.

We have reached the dreaded doldrums

And I know not which fate strikes greater misadventure—

To risk shipwreck as the ballast runs aground,

Or be chained to the waters as time runs out.