I’m currently working on a series of poems about the women who have held our family like lifeboats afloat over the last two centuries. Most of the men in my family tree, especially on my father’s side, died young. I had one grandfather until I was six and lost my father when I was fourteen. This poem is the title poem, in both past tense and present tense. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Lifeboats

You were our lifeboats

You alone carried our lost souls grieving

away from a sinking ship, the larger vessel

torpedoed, striking an unseen iceberg,

blowing an engine, adrift

in a wide open ocean with a broken

mast, a torn sail, our wooden boats

ablaze, smoke billowing under

the stars where all hope abandoned

families in the wake of disease 

and debt. We bid our men and our lack

of grandfathers farewell on their wrecked

ships and rowed forward through the piercing

fog, steering clear of some of the jagged

rocks, desperate to hold the roar

of the long falls behind our backs.

You were our life jackets and

without you, we would not

remain afloat.

Lifeboats

You are our lifeboats

You alone carry our lost souls grieving

away from a sinking ship, the larger vessel

torpedoed, striking an unseen iceberg,

blowing an engine, adrift

In a wide open ocean with a broken

mast, a torn sail, our wooden boats

ablaze, smoke billowing under

the stars where all hope abandons

families in the wake of disease 

and debt. We bid our men and our lack

of grandfathers farewell on their wrecked

ships and row forward through the piercing

fog, steering clear of the jagged

rocks, desperate to hold the roar

of the long falls behind our backs.

You are our life jackets and

without you, we will not

remain afloat.