After Forcing into Hankou by Tsuguharu Foujita

The world is gray with night and smoke

The sea is cold and the wind is brisk

The only sound is a solemn croak

The water's intention is to choke

The lungs of the crew upon its waves

While the world's still gray with night and smoke

The men on the ship used to be blokes

But now they're ghosts lost in the sea

The only sound they make is solemn croaks

With phantom fingers they sometimes stroke

The walls of the boat that protected them

From a world that was gray with night and smoke

On Christmas day the speakers spoke

Wishing the soldiers good cheer and thanks

And breaking the sounds of solemn croaks

The spirits on the boat were woke

By messages to those still on patrol

Now that the world's not gray with night and smoke

And the sounds aren't a battleship's solemn croaks

Works Cited

Tsuguharu, F. (2013). Forcing into Hankou [Painting]. In WikiArt. Xennex. Retrieved March 17, 2020, from https://www.wikiart.org/en/tsuguharu-foujita/forcing-into-hankou-1945. (Original work created in 1945)