Tied Up

This one got stripped way down.
Without the Coast Guard boathouse
what was left of the pier in the distance
just looked lost.

So I wiped them away
and the few boats
that had found something to moor to
and most of the buoys and birds in between
and I concentrated on the lines.

There were four boats
big ones
all parked and lashed together
in the same spot
in front of the town dock.

But, again
the two smaller ones that were tethered out
on the far side of this boat
well… they just kept getting in the way.

So, along with the detritus in the middle distance
they and most of the modern day electronic devices
that help keep this boat afloat
and the crew safe at sea
were jettisoned for my composition.

What’s left is all I needed
to tell the story
of just how startlingly beautiful
the raking autumn light
on those hardworking
Menemsha lines can be.