“The Terror”
The wind blows across the ice floes.
The ship is frozen in solid. It’s as far as it goes.
This Northwest Passage is impossible to sail.
We just sit here and hear the wind wail.
We have been frozen in for two months.
There is not enough food to eat lunch.
We are down to one meal a day.
There is no more food on the way.
A decision must be reached.
Some one has to go for relief.
Set out across the frozen waste.
They must travel with much haste.
So, a few were selected to Make the trek
They may die but, what the heck.
To not go means death for sure.
To be frozen is not an attractive lure.
There are rumors about ‘The Terror.’
The name given to something out there.
It can be heard out on the frozen waste.
Waiting, to have a human to taste.
No one knows just what it looks like.
Some kind of pre-historic, ugly type.
Something big with very sharp teeth.
It is hungry for something to eat.
The rescue team has gone away.
Yet, “The Terror,’ seems to stay.
We don’t know if we will last
We keep guard from the mast.
Time drags on and we grow weaker.
Soon,—– we will meet the creature.
We say our prayers and make our peace.
We’ll do all we can to avoid its teeth.
One man from the rescue team survived.
Help was sent. Hoping to find them alive.
Every man they found on board was dead.
Ripped apart and eaten alive, it was said.
A Northwest Passage was never found.
Every ship would be frozen or run aground
in the most severe conditions known to man.
Not to mention, “The Terror,” still rules that land.
————————————————R. W. Johnson—–(2015)