Christopher Allan
Gypsy Moon
Alex comes from a sailing clan,
salt and wind for breath, but fate
marooned him here; a Robinson Crusoe
in reverse. It took a fool’s courage
to save and borrow enough to anchor
the Gypsy Moon near the rockery.
That was thirty months ago and still,
mast prone, she dozes the summer,
never yet wetted with a wave.
Today Alex lets his kids aboard
for a picnic; they listen to sycamores
echo an ocean out of reach.
Each week the grass is mown,
borders weeded, the vessel tidied;
but moorings are slipped only in sleep.
Brenda uses the bows as a tie
for the weekend wash. Shirts flap
in the breeze like outsized bunting.
Alex watches them from his cabin,
lays down his bevy of boating mags,
then turns to take in the long lawn
that stretches away to starboard; so neat
that nothing, not even the wind
can make it shift and ripple.
Christopher Allan is a podiatrist and lives near Worcester. A small collection, Dancing in Paper Trousers, was published by Flarestack in 1996.
Page(s) 70
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