To All the Boats I’ve Known

My first boat ride
across the Delaware -
not the one with
Captain George,
even I am not that old

I mean the one from Philly
all the way to Camden
to catch a train
all belching smoke -
all day to the
Atlantic shore

I sat on a suitcase
so I could see out
The engine might
be an Atlantic -
but this is about boats,
not trains

A big one next
on the mighty Chesapeake -
I saw my first Gannet
and the naval base
I’d call home

Sometimes we sailors
would wave at the boats
from the Umpqua,
Shakori, or Paiute

From Little Creek to a
very big ocean we’d go,
while they were going
where we wanted to be

Many a trip o’r those big
troubled waters,
While they dug and built bridges
to replace those old boats
and then rejoin
those very same boats
on the beautiful Delaware Bay

And the one to Capri
across Naples Bay
I don’t remember the name -
They quietly faded
from my memory,
but now they return
from the haze

The Tarlang, a ferry, I’d call it, I guess,
in beautiful Kwaj lagoon
and the boats up in Washington
weaving their way
through the islands and hills
of Olympia -

So much like
Deer Island,
Campobello,
and that big one, Manan,
the isle I can see
from my house,
but still so far away

The nameless boats
in little waters
A bit longer,
they’d be a bridge
with friendly ferrymen
and ferrywomen
paid in coin
before I got to the other side
but no Three-headed Dog
thus far

And the big ones -
the Highlander,
Blue Puttees,
the Atlantic Vision,
and to Fogo Island
but not yet St. Brenden's Fair Isle
nor Change

Poems from the Boats
and all their honored
ancestors
still keeping watch

I never rode
the Leif Erickson
I am not cargo
but wave to it
now and then

And almost forgot
the Labrador boat
I’ll have to look up
its name
I’ll never forget
that chaotic dance
from a Benny Hill skit
or the passengers
tumbling about

An amusement ride
as much as a trip
three times!
What fun!

And the Digby boat
that went to St John
and back again
I guess -
I only remember
the cute young girl
who played the fiddle

And the one on Long Island
the Landing Ship Tank
a Veteran, still hard at work,
mentioned in another poem
and now a painting too

And still more
nameless ones
across rivers, ponds, and lakes
Gulfs and Straits
Bays and Seas

Keep us together -
"Lifeline"