by Julia Griffin

“Suez Canal traffic jam ‘cleared’ days after Ever Given cargo ship freed”
—NBC

Tell me, who is
Stuck in Suez?
MV Ever
Given? Never!

Ever Given?
Was she driven
By a cretin?
Call’s not yet in;

Some tribunal
Surely soon’ll
Find the answer:
Did some chancer

Fraud or tyro,
Come to Cairo,
Wreaking mess-ups?
Had De Lesseps—

Mining master,
Granite-blaster—
Seen ahead to
What it led to,

He’d have left it;
But he cleft it.
Now the vessel
Has to nestle

(Or she’d splinter)
Somewhere inter-
Continental,
Monumental,

Traffic-blocking,
Market-shocking,
Wedged and dented,
Much-resented,

And in Suez,
Where the view is
Wrecked and riven,
Unforgiven