Empress of Ireland

[ckeo]

A nice little tribute... I especially liked how the scale built up from the first to the second stanza. Your question mark at the end is jarring, thoughtful, and apt. In history we do try to remember things, to commemorate, but sometimes it isn't so clear what we really mean to achieve by it.

Thanks. I was not sure how well the question mark fit in, but it felt right.
With all the attention that the Titanic has received in the past ten years or so, I would have thought this would have came out. For it to come to light now as the centennial of its disaster approaches is just wrong.

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"The Empress of Ireland's cat Emmy, an orange tabby who had never once
missed a voyage, refused to board the ship before its departure on May 28, 1914.
The crew could not coax her aboard, so the Empress departed without her.
It was reported that Emmy watched the ship sail away from Quebec City
sitting on the roof of the shed at Pier 27, which would later serve
as a temporary morgue for the dead pulled from the river after the
Empress went down."
( from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland )

P.S. There are two orange tabbies in the lot I live with.
One is the most Delphic (term selected with Leanne in mind),
and the other, the horniest (who knows?). However, either
seems a possible explanation.

I wanted to fit the cat into the poem but I was pressed for time.
It might be a worthwhile challenge for someone to write a poem from
Emmy's point of view, I think it would be interesting.