TITANIC'S COAL STOKERS

 

What were they singing the Titanic's coal stokers?

What did they choir along in the steam engine

 while shoveling coal on end amid screams, 

expletives and sailor jokes?

What were they humming larksome soaked

 in rills of sweat, ale and eating beef stew, plum

pudding 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 ever sing somewhere

 in the waiting room to the other side

 through the pearly gates? 

I hear their hobnail boots tapping

a rag-time on the flooded floor.