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Replying to a comment on:
Grandpa's boat (Free verse) by Caducus
\At the sunken pier on Ginger lake
I see the remnants of bygone days
capsized and tousled in reeds
lay the tomb of travelled oak
tied against the ebbing flow,
Wrenching till the rope is taut.
Once I combed these waters
I would watch Grandpa fish,
bellowing ghosts from yellowed fingers
whilst coughing from the tea
I knew was bourbon from a tea flask.
One autumn I watched him sail
he told me to wait at the pier,
the lake changed from gold to silver
I shouted âGrandpaâ, âGrandpaâ
but my echo was all I could here.
My father found him in moonlight,
crumpled and static in driftwood
ripples filling his wrinkles,
his silver hair shining through matted silt
next to his boat,
full of dead fish and bourbon.
I helped my father moor the boat
amongst the cry from pelagic birds.
My Father held me which thickened my throat
impaling me with his comforting words.
As an adult I return,
to return my Father.
Grief still thickens my throat,
and there are no comforting words,
just dying ones which said âfix the old boatâ,
And when I set sail with his ashes
I will smile amongst the cries of birds.
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