Trompe-l'oeil.(Poem)

 
TROMPE-L'OEIL 
 
   Banks classified five species of vermin 
   infesting the ship's biscuit. 
   Gentlemen could put theirs 
   in the not-too-hot oven; 
 
   crew had to shake the insects off 
   and eat "the stayers". 
   Much wasted by keeping, 
   it tasted like mustard. 
 
   Sightings of the Great Skua, 
   ungainly Port Egmont Hen, 
   meant land was near. 
   From a position now indefinable 
 
   Hicks conjured a coastline, 
   cloud and land intermingled 
   touched by the sun's slanting rays, 
   the weather hazy, even distance deceptive, 
 
   measured by "heaving the log". 
   The delusions created by cloud-lands 
   ...