Evening Ferry

Evening Ferry

I watch her board, my black-haired girl,
leaving me once more for the family
that is not hers, but swallows her youth
in their service. When she leaves me

each week I stand so, touch my heart
with my fingers as she climbs the ramp
and looks at me, to make her smile before
she boards and disappears. And thus we part

week after week, and thus I always stand,
watching the ferry pulling out and away
into the gathering dark, until its lights
blur, fade, and vanish in the misty bay.

Lamma Island
April 2005