CAPSTAN CHANTEY
(after hours)

memories gather thick and random
no more welcome than
gnats whirring over the moss
on the fragrant hummock
the old pine left in dying

i was thirty then just finding life
uneasily blissful in my new
and doomed marriage
a late bloomer
husbanding trouble and strife

that warm atlantic night kathy sang
‘I Went Down to Sammy’s Bar”
in a little room at the yew
wine bloom smoke thick
bellowed but so perfect

blew me into another time
another life
(in canvas pants
back straining in the sun)
and my own life just beginning

hey the last boats are going.

Matt Williamson