Wright, Carolyne

English

University of Montana

CutBank Volume 1 Issue 7 CutBank 7 Article 12 Fall 1976 Ferry Ride and Taking Leave of Friends Carolyne Wright Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cutbank  Part of the Creative Writing Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Recommended Citation Wright, Carolyne (1976) "Ferry Ride and Taking Leave of Friends," CutBank: Vol. 1 : Iss. 7 , Article 12. Available at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cutbank/vol1/iss7/12 This Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in CutBank by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact scholarworks@mso.umt.edu. Carolyne WrightFERRY RIDE(Puget Sound, W ashington)The great boat glides by, a red kite on an unseen wire wavering behind it like an afterthought. We move between worlds: the water a blue field ferries plow, sheened flat enough by sun to walk on; the land, dark  with hemlocks w rapped in their boughs like m onks in winter. O ur thoughts  are full of semicolons, ride invisible wires before words flag out at their ends like kite tails.O ur hearts, locked in our  bodies like two lamps in a footlocker.We stare hard at the darkening  water, the gulls’ throats  as they wheel and sob, and when we dare, each other.As far into the night as the engine, bo a t’s heart, beats below deck, we glide tow ard each o ther— waves that cross—and leave our echoes, the th rum  and clangor of bells under the water. We lock in the dark  between moons, beat our hearts from  hiding; then kiss, tu rn  our respective cheeks, and give ourselves to every mom ent that we sleep: our lives, in dream , two rows of lights winking off a long pier toward the sea.28Carolyne WrightTAKING LEAVE OF FRIENDS(Lake Union D ock, Seattle)A spot picked at d am p  ran d o m  to break  through: the line o f docks spattered with creosote, w orkm en  hosing down a seaplane on the fritz, silence in the beam -strewn yards between warehouses. H ow  will we get out of this one? you ask the red an t toppled from  a rusted cable to your thigh. Migrations are the mainstay: a gaggle of honkers lined up on the shore, calls hollow with tundra ,  thaw ed ice boom ing under all-night sun.Long sad distances unravel from their bandaged throats.Strange currents catch the skirts of your thoughts  on the updraft.You forget time here, forget rhyme, reasons for coming, half your name. W ho could ask where you’re going, w ho would you change your life for, whether you’d put a b o o k m ark  in your heart and  rise and  follow?Who would know how true you are, no m atterwhat the year, no m atter  what the rip tidesof your blood washed in? Cloudspiling up on the horizon show youwho your friends are, lovethe ou tbound  bus you climb aboa rd ,your strongest word goodbye.29

Ferry Ride and Taking Leave of Friends

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Ferry Ride and Taking Leave of Friends

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