In seabed off the Emerald Isle
Rusty sheets embrace the futile
Final cries of innocence on trial
Starving children wars away
Knew beligerence must pay
God's price on souls gone astray
Young Churchill would not lose
Scuttled use of cruiser rules
Mercy forfeited final chance to choose
Hidden guns on merchant ships
Shifted high sea politics
Wiped honour's smirk from unsuspecting lips
Beneath the sea, sleek submarine
Found Lusitania
A target for revenge, a meal for mania
Patient killer swift as whale
Turned with teeth and foamy tail
Preyed upon prayers of potent detail
Torpedo struck, munitions rocked
Eighteen minutes poured from clocks
Hands went down 'fore they grasped the shock
Shrapneljaculation
War's ultimate sensation
Impregnated the hatred of a fertile nation
Midday nightmare screams
Aural pitcher of black cream
Spilt upon ocean of unnecessary dreams
In blink of eyes Poseidon
She sank below horizon
Blessed her innocents, pax vobiscum
c) C. Butler 1996
