Eve Sailing
Eve Sailing
She thought sail boats
would be different,
but she got sick
as a slumped dog
while he wailed histrionically, belly whaled
over the deck, though his legs, their hair thick
as baleen, manned the stairs
to down below–
There had to be a bus home, she thought,
when they anchored at Santa
Catalina and he ordered dindin, candlelit,
or, given that it was his home they were supposed
to return to,
a bus headed anywhere.
Yet the stars shone
when they boarded again
as beautifully as ever they do,
and the waves crocheted their light into lace
as is their way,
and he laughed and sang, a little drunk and the boat turning out
to have a motor,
while she, still feeling sickish, endowed
the hydrochloric scent that she remembered emanating
from the back of a Greyhound with some previously-unnoted romance,
as its headlights, in her mind’s eye,
swabbed the dark ahead;
in other words, all things were fully themselves
in that
night ocean.
***************************
This is a sort of poem for Real Toads open platform originally inspired by Gillena Cox’s prompt re sailing. The photos are mine from the Ruffino Tamayo Museum of Pre-Hispanic Art in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, UncategorizedTags: dear (in the) headlights poem, don't talk to me about motion sickness poem, Eve Sailing, http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com, manicddaily, Ruffino Tamayo Museum, Sailing poem
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ManicDDaily 
June 28, 2016 at 1:00 pm
So glad you answered Gillena’s prompt – loved “waves crocheted their light into lace” and the way you weaved in romance with belly-whales! Thanks for sharing.
June 28, 2016 at 1:14 pm
Oh I luv the “crocheted light” best of all your images
Much love…
June 28, 2016 at 1:21 pm
I love how you mix the eternal waves and beauty with the grittiness of the greyhound bus… maybe we are in two places at the same time, your images are perfect as always .
June 28, 2016 at 8:54 pm
Ha. Thanks, Bjorn. k.
June 28, 2016 at 2:54 pm
What a perfect tale of sailing both away and home. This is beautifully realized, karin.
June 28, 2016 at 5:23 pm
and which was worse – seasick or bus fumes? maybe it depends on who you’re with 😉
June 28, 2016 at 9:40 pm
Ha! Nice conclusion after a strangely enthralling tale.
June 29, 2016 at 11:27 am
This makes me think that someone’s gotta hold back her baleen hair while she pukes overboard. 🙂 Been wanting to take my family whale watching, but am concerned about the motion-sickness factor for some. Lovely poem, anyway, really.
June 29, 2016 at 11:47 am
Ha. I think whale watching would be pretty terrific though. k.
June 29, 2016 at 5:27 pm
Great response to the prompt. Love the way everything just flows, like a river becoming the ocean.
Greetings from London.