Water Like Glass
The harbor surface like glass,
broken by a freighter approaching
the river, a behemoth
that consumes the channel.
Kayaks move to the side,
surrender to its mass as they bob
in its wake. Time crawls
as the ship crawls past.
A crewman on the stern waves,
the waves in the wake behind him
fading as calm returns.
Water like glass greets the kayaks.
I’m off prompt for Day 10 at napowrimo.net.
In the company of the Niagara River and two of the Great Lakes, of course I spent time on the waterfront when I visited Buffalo in November 2020.
~ click images for larger view in new tab ~
~ Day 10 ~
rivrvlogr 
Oh, those wakes, if they hit you right, can turn placid kayaking into amusement park roller coasters. I remember…
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OH, yeah. Here, it’s a concern on the Osage River. Thankfully it’s flat-bottom fishing boats that are barreling by, so the wake isn’t as high. (And they do keep their distance.)
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I had no idea there was that type of activity on your ‘kayak waters
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That’s the Buffalo River. Freighters enter from Lake Erie. I don’t see anything like that on the Missouri River.
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Good, the Buffalo sounds way too exciting. But I gotta admit, that must be something to see🙂
Pat
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You captures the moment, Ken. I particularly like the last stanza.
I often see ships arriving and leaving the Philadelphia shipyard. There are some big cargo ships–and tug boats sometimes. But then yesterday, I saw some men fishing from a small rowboat (and from the shouts, they caught something special.)
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Thanks, Merril. There are occasional barges on our section of the Missouri River. It’s primarily pleasure craft on the Niagara, but back in the day small freighters would be seen going to steel mills and paper plants (now gone). Scuba diving, I found a 300 lb. ships anchor just off shore from where a steel mill once stood in my town. That’s still sitting in a flower bed at my old home. When I left town, I offered it to the local history museum. They accepted, but never came for it. After 9 years, the bed is gone and the anchor is sunk 6 inches into the yard. I think it’s now a conversation piece for my ex. 😉
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Oh, I think I remember you mentioning that anchor.
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The next time I’m in town I’ll have to drive by there and get a picture of it in its current state. That could make a good poem. I’d just have to convince the holder of the vast archive of past photos to look for an original. She has them pretty well boxed/labeled, so my dive log should narrow the date. This sounds like a project in the works.
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Sounds great, Ken!
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For some reason this reminds me of how we used to watch the freight trains passing and wave to the caboose before climbing over the fence and crossing the tracks to play in the woods (still amazed my mother let us do that , only getting annoyed when we came home wet from falling in the creek) (k)
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Every little incident seems to make the news these days — and look at the access we to it! — so that our awareness is heightened.
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That’s true. I wonder if it’s really more dangerous now, or just that we feel the danger that was always there.
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