Losing my way one heaving, stormy night,
I blundered onto the bridge - where perhaps
I was not meant to be - and there took fright:
the wheel untended, no one there!  Who keeps
the watch?  my former naval voice called out,
unheard by winking, clicking instruments.
Green water shuddered ship and me.  I sensed
my body then, the self-adjusting beat
of pumping blood, the intake and exhaust
of breath - which all was being done for me
as it has for decades, faultlessly.
So where and when do I come in?  The tossed
and trembling ship! and who is meant to man it?
And who or what has just composed this sonnet?

Frank Dux