Whether the faint clangs resulted from the rumours,
or the rumours resulted from the faint clangs

even the eldest believed the possibility
of a lost worker could only be an omen.

No matter their sense of wonder,
the pending deadlines or their hurried pace,

in the back of some workers’ minds
their rivets sealed more than just the hull.

At home they hugged their children,
kissed their wives

or dreamed of families
they had yet to realize.

In the back of some workers’ minds
their rivets sealed more than just the hull.

Billeh Nickerson’s first journal publication appeared in PRISM international 36:1. He later had the honour of serving as Editor in 2002-3. He is the author of The Asthmatic Glassblower, Let Me Kiss it Better: Elixirs for the Not So Straight and Narrow, and McPoems. A new collection entitled Impact: The Titanic Poems is forthcoming in the Spring of 2012 with Arsenal Pulp Press. He lives in Vancouver and teaches Creative Writing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.