Sally Bliumis-Dunn: Work

I could tell they were father and son,
 
the air between them slack, as though
 
they hardly noticed one another.
 
 
The father sanded the gunwales,
 
the boy coiled the lines.
 
And I admired them there, each to his task
 
 
in the quiet of the long familiar.
 
The sawdust coated the father’s arms  
 
like dusk coats grass in a field.
 
 
The boy worked next on the oarlocks
 
polishing the brass until it gleamed,
 
as though he could harness the sun.
 
 
Who cares what they were thinking,
 
lucky in their lives 
 
that the spin of the genetic wheel
 
 
slowed twice to a stop 
 
and landed each of them here.
 

From Echolocation from MadHat Press/Plume Editions. Copyright 2018 Sally Bliumis-Dunn.