Making Way
—Narragansett Bay —1960, first time out
We part from pier
slow as disengaging lovers
one landlocked, the other a
floater who won’t be kept at bay
The diminishing dock slides back,
its bollards and planks deploy
to some other place not here
—to a distancing otherworld
The tether breaks
as stern-first we pass the
channel buoy
Quarter back, the OD says.
Quarter back, aye sir,
and we slip away
Steer two one zero, half ahead.
Two one zero, half ahead, aye sir
and we slow-slide down
the gleaming bay
The sun’s so bright it indicates
a tern on the roof of a big estate
a half mile away atop its
long lawn hill off the starboard bow
which slopes down clear
through the wind-wove air
to a point where jades meet blues
……… —which passes now as we part the sea while
making way
Further south the sea’s first chops
begin to unsettle our sheltered
adolescent cruise
Near the harbor mouth all decks
rise then make their first
supplicating bows to whatever
god it is who intervenes
to call-off wrecks
…… —we’re juggled gently first in
Neptune’s law as
pitches rolls & heaves
meet yaws
Grey diesel billows from our raked stacks
Halyards snap against the mast’s steel
Gulls abundantly rise & reel
over the white chaos of our wake’s track
Sunlight splinters
into rippled trillions
upon each breaker’s
sequined breast
before it folds
in a white rush, falling
to the soul percussion
of our bow-wave’s
shush
…………. shush
……………………
by Jim Culleny
November, 2009