Decades ago,
I spent a season of youth
sanding smooth
the aged edges
of the centerboard
and rudder;
The lone materials
that kept my hull
from sliding away
on the edge of the storm.
Then I sealed
their wooden grains
with laquer
that caused them to glisten
and enriched their contrast.
This work of preservation
was returned to me
when the next youth,
smiled and wondered,
and road across the choppy crests
toward the guarded coast
of the mangled spoil island,
whose anchoring roots
of pine, palm and mangrove
have dissipated
over the same period
and allowed the crystals of sand
to migrate
to the jetty grown
public access beach.
-Robert L. Jackson III
