Well I remember her
the Steamship Nobska
launched in nineteen twenty-five
just shy of twenty years
before my own launching

Queen of the Sounds
they called her
built in Maine
at the Bath Ironworks
she made the run
from Woods Hole to the Islands
and New Bedford

I still recall a crossing in September
when the swells were such
to make her pitch and roll
as if we were at sea
a small adventure yet
enough for a young boy
to feel the ocean's power
and mystery

Slender and elegant
unlike the ferries
that came after her
her sharp bow cut
through winter ice
when others couldn't
she was the last
of all our coastal steamers
retired in '73
and later scrapped

Her portrait done in oils
hangs on my wall
smoke streaming from the stack
under a sky
of windblown clouds
behind her on the far horizon
rise a schooner's sails
perhaps the Shenandoah
moored in Vineyard Haven harbor
for the tourists
a reminder of the days
now distant memory
of sailing ship that braved
our seas and coasts

The Nobska too belongs now
to another time
and looking at the print
up on my wall
it's not hard to feel
the same about myself
but mostly it's the thanks
for all I've seen
of ships and oceans
as a child and later too
that wells up in my throat
bringing me close
to tears but not of sadness
only gratitude