Across the Way



Someone there across the way
is occupied with their life too.
They sleep, they wake,
they wonder what to do.

For years of dawns I watched their dad
returning from the sea,
cleaning his catch on the dock,
blowing a conch like a starting horn
to say hello to me when I rowed out
until the day he sat down by his television set
and didn't know me anymore.
I like to dabble in these memories
as I await my own unplanned
departure from this shore
and wiping of the slate.

I treasure all across the way
who live and love
and who will die like me

no matter what the seagulls
in their soaring haunting solitude
may say.

21 January 2024
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca