Floating Bliss

I sit on a ship's great deck
Staring at the forever blue
A natural measuring stick
Like none other in a sense
It both calls and frightens

The great abyss unknown
Seems to stare right back
So I sit simply, comfortably
On the creation of man
Against nature's wild

Floating with thousands
A floating party in the sun
Hosted from lands abroad
Singing our classic songs
Serving our drinks strong
Slinging our glutinous hash

They smile a kind smile
But few really see them
Nor what sent them to sea
A Navy of sorts to escape
Poverty, crime, instability

Some school teachers
Many highly educated
Yet below us they stand
Yes sir, yes ma'am on repeat
Or back home they go
To dream a Western luxury
Different than safety, choice

So they stack the buffet
And clean up food half eaten
With thought of a childhood
Where food stands as currency

It is hard not to envy
The American Dream
The chosen ones above the rest
Where even the poorest soul
Still well fed in extreme excess

If only they could truly see
The unhappiness of it all
When wealth makes invisible
The needs in clear view
Of lives with different risks
Without society’s great nets

As they eat, drink and soak
Another shot of empty bliss
They see the water blue
But not the wonder of it all
Knowing not a changing tide
Of a society at greedy war

Provided on the backs
Of our poverty long exported
Across the forever blue

 

Nicholas Campos January 2026