Riding the Ferry Home by Maralee Gerke

The sound of engines and brakes
Magnify, as we drive warily
Into the cavernous hold.
Door to door, our truck squeezed tightly by a
Variety of trucks, cars, and vans.
An amalgam of strangers
Captives of the sea
Lurch between the crush of vehicles
And roll toward the stairways.
Pressed into the narrow stairs
The crowd surges upward.
Finally above the car deck
Fresh salt air and coolness hit our warm faces
Waking us from a carbon monoxide laced dream.
A passage, suspending us between shores
We drink watery cocoa and eat stale pastry
Overhear conversation, play innumerable hands of cards.
Sea birds, barges, and seals slide along the wake.
The ferry undulates, swinging with the tide
We walk, swaying with the roll of the ship
Movements as fluid as the sea beneath us
Smells of food, salt air, sweat, and cigarette smoke
Envelop the passenger decks.
Mist coats the windows, the breath of passage.
Relegated below, we never view
The welcoming dock, only hear the reverberation as the
Huge doors open in anticipation
Of disgorging vital cargo.
Car engines start with echoing cacophony.
Then tremulous columns of vehicles inch forward
Banging over the outstretched ramp.
Loosed from the hulking hold,
The anticipated waterfront, now reality.
Riding the ferry home.

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Riding the Ferry Home
by Maralee Gerke
copyright 11-18-2002

Age Rating: 18 to 127

Prose-n-Poetry.com

Riding the Ferry Home by Maralee Gerke copyright 11-18-2002 Age Rating: 18 to 127

Riding the Ferry Home
by Maralee Gerke
copyright 11-18-2002

Age Rating: 18 to 127