Fast Day 221 August 26 2011 {On My Mother's Birthday}

 Vessel Roger Blough in Fog

On My Mother's Birthday

Sitting on a glider…
Sitting on a glider in Marine City,
we fell asleep;

a cold front
inserted itself into a hot summer day
bringing rain and fog;

freighters surprised at noon
sounded ten inch steam whistles’ alarm
waking glider children.

the pilot houses floated
above the now obscure and fog-grey hulls
as if disembodied

and chased by the surprised
smoke stack, freed from the now invisible stern;
timelessness, summer, youth!
--
pix:  boatnerd.com

notes
the photo is the closest I could come to describing the actual events. The pilot houses back then were taller and stood higher relative to the hull, and the fog totally obscured the hull, which in the picture above is slightly visible as a black line between the stern and the bow.

I am early with the poem, and early for the birthday.
--