The damned ship lurched and slithered. Quiet and quick <br /> My cold gorge rose; the long sea rolled; I knew <br />I must think hard of something, or be sick; <br /> And could think hard of only one thing -- YOU! <br />You, you alone could hold my fancy ever! <br /> And with you memories come, sharp pain, and dole. <br />Now there's a choice -- heartache or tortured liver! <br /> A sea-sick body, or a you-sick soul! <br /> <br />Do I forget you? Retchings twist and tie me, <br /> Old meat, good meals, brown gobbets, up I throw. <br />Do I remember? Acrid return and slimy, <br /> The sobs and slobber of a last years woe. <br />And still the sick ship rolls. 'Tis hard, I tell ye, <br />To choose 'twixt love and nausea, heart and belly.<br /><br />Rupert Brooke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-channel-passage/
