If you had been here.
My brother would not have died.
We do not know when we will be carried to our bier.
Or if others will have cried.

I am reading about the voyage of the Belgica.
And her terrible voyage to the Antarctic.
Over the side goes young Wiencke.
A line is thrown, it is all too quick.

Brave Captain Lecointe leaps to the rescue, despite any cost.
A savage freezing sea is raging.
A hand grips the lad but he is lost.
A last sight, the lad is not breathing.

Such is our fate, a line is thrown.
Life or death on the toss of a coin.

Haiku

line is thrown to us
Then can we take it or not
It is life or death

[Note: First two lines from John 11:19-21]