Salus Carnotense

come captain, sail,
crystal hulled atop our deepest cartography
observe and then fashion a fable
palatable enough to lay at the family table

though do it, I beg, as if mute
with such a silent eloquence
that mouth’s no questions of consequence
instead try reading  the captions

unmask the tension etched deep in the fabric
the text amid the creases burned through the years
of caustic neglect
then, good captain, draft us a new chart

warn us, where be dragons and terra incognita lie,
navigate these doldrums that we may yet be saved