What were they singing
the Titanic's coal stokers?
What did they choir along
in the steam engine shoveling coal on end
amid screams, expletives and sailor jokes?
What were they humming larksome
soaked in rills of sweat, ale and eating
bacon rolls like ravenous gannets?
Were they guided finally by Virgil as a lodestar
while walking through the last and eternal
flames of their lives?
What did they sing ever somewhere
in the waiting room to the Other Side?
I hear their hobnail boots tapping
a rag-time on the flooded floor.
