If a lineset gains so much momentum
that the operator cannot stop it,
that heavy load becomes a runaway.
Your instinct will be to grab the rope. Don’t.
If you are lucky, you will only burn
your hands as the rope races between them.
Much more likely, though, you will be carried
upwards by the rope – to be smashed into
the loading bridge, mangled by falling weights.
Should you survive this awful collision,
you will likely lose your grip on the rope
and scream back to the deck. This hurts like hell.
Learn this discipline, however unnatural:
When a line gets out of control, let go!
Don’t be a hero. Warn others. And run.
Penguin Poems 