We skim the surface of the Puget Sound
held close on the right by a nubbled edge
of landscape, pressing in to water's lip.
Liquid sky, cloudy bay consent to meet.
Splendid grey gulls hurdle the mass of spruce,
the island shoulders. Osprey stoop to fish
the breakfast soup, dip in to hook sockeye,
compete for their morning meal with a pod
of Orcas hunting there in mottled pairs.
Behind my swift clacking window, hungry
enough for some delicate taste, with no
hook or beak to get my breakfast, no fire,
rack or spit for cooking, I sit off shore
with dull, cold sausage sandwiches to eat
and train tea for the drinking as we pass
the fishing ground beneath a strait of stars.
Amtrak Dawn: Seattle to Vancouver, BC
Amtrak Dawn: Seattle to Vancouver, BC
Carol Willette Bachofner
Prairie Schooner, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Spring 2003), p. 139
Carol Willette Bachofner, currently poet laureate of Rockland, Maine, is the founder of Poetry Month Rockland. Her poetry has been published in anthologies or journals such as Prairie Schooner, The Comstock Review, cream city review, and others. She is the author of four published books of poetry, most recently Native Moons, Native Days. On December 21, 2012, Bachofner read poetry aloud nonstop for 8 hours to call attention to poetry in her community.
