Tale of Underwater Ghost

Tug of war

with the man o’ war

one tentacle at a time

and maybe

you’ll get a ride

to a higher plane of existence,

or perhaps a deeper one

to the shipwrecks

and bioluminescent flesh,

and maybe

you’ll reincarnate

as a sea turtle

who eats man o’ wars

for treaties–

or you might haunt

the dugongs

in your

algae-crusted

skirt

and sing songs to storm tossed sailors

to slip under sea and play with you

but if they’re educated

they’ll have bought earplugs

and only communicate in morse code

or sign language.

But good thing

you’ve trained for this:

just tug o’ war

the rudder, the keel and the anchor

one at a time

until something gives

then swim inside

and take sailors on a dive

so next time

all those ghosts

can overwhelm the earplugged sailors

with a coral choir.