Life is Sailing

(written Thursday, August 7, 2025)

Wooden planks one after the other
“Caw, caw”
Fish Flesh fixed on hooks
Flung to the waves in hopes of catching
Fleshy fish for fillet.

An excited, “Look, Mom!”
Black shape beneath the waves. Peer down below.
Sting ray? “No, manta ray.”
For the sting lies close to the ocean’s floor.

All the way to the end we walk
Quickly to see is that a person in the water?!
Ah, no, just a pelican
Bobbing in its happy place
Drifting with the current
Past the pier and the boats
As content as can be.

“I could stay here all day,” begs my son,
His siblings quite ansy to leave.
Sister hangs back in the shade,
Nervous above metal grates and ocean waves.

“Caw, caw.”
“Oh, this crow of the sea,” say I.
Seagulls gathering, ringing their calls.
“You should write about them,”
My sea-life-loving son beams.
Well, my son, I did,
And I wish I was forever with you
Out on that pier with crows of the sea.