lonely ferry

the dock is sleek with the day's downpour.
the wind smears the prints of my boots
as i head for the ferry station....

i squint through grimy, breath-fogged windows
and watch the boat push ten minutes
across a distance worth five....

i am the only passenger on the ferry,
but the casco bay line won't wait.
the crewmen coil the sluggish lines on the rusted deck....

walking down the splintered planks to the cobbled road,
i dig through my knapsack for his picture
and wonder if he will be here tomorrow
as he promised he would be yesterday.

19 december 1986

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all the poems in this series are dated 19 dec 1986 because that's the date that's printed on them. apparently that was the due date. or, you know, whatever. at any rate - the point is that i didn't write them all in one day. i wrote them all in one semester for one class in which i submitted them for the approval of a published poet who later went on to become an award-winning poet and i despised him for judging my poetry with his creepy overgrown boyish arrogance, but this poem, he liked this poem, and i was embarrassingly, reluctantly, grudgingly proud.