clusters of sails
how do you know how to mix

rolling waters as the pulse of the earth
a breathing
we ride

 

Having passed Searsport and now at anchor in Stockton Springs

Captain Becky’s reading in the galley
from Lincoln Ross Colcord’s Sailing Days on the Penobscot
of the treacherous trip from here,
where the crooked, tricky Penobscot River is said to begin
and the 24 miles to Bangor and Brewer at the first falls
and all the lumber collected from upstream

even the 18 miles from Bucksport was a terror
in the days of sails

 tidewalkers
broken logs along the shoreline
and river
can sink a ship

60 boats a day at Bangor and Brewer

schooners lashed three abreast
for the Bangor stretch
pulled by a steamboat

Make way!

slosh, slosh, slosh, ripple
at the bow
/ bowsprit

one porpoise
then three
approaching Castine

topsail, top’sal
still motoring along

sound of chainsaw from shore
a nasty mosquito

Dice light

The difference a week can make.