She has seen better days
loitered at the water's edge
for an age, unclaimed and still
roped to a post, deftly settling in
when the river recedes to mudflat
then the tide seeps back, fingering the banks
slipping through broke-back curves
between ribs of wet wrecked decking 
where shorebirds primly pick their way
and lichen and sunlight bequeath an amber glow 
to her lilting tilted body

once a small whale calf of a row boat
lay alongside -  a vague shattered outline it is now
in memorium to her homely comely
houseboat heyday

21 thoughts on “better days”

1. I wouldn’t have thought it possible to wax so lyrical about a decaying houseboat! But you did it superbly 🙂

   1. oh this one has long been a favourite – I see her beauty

      1. 👍🏽

2. You had me at /slipping through broke-back curves/. Derelicts always fascinate me, both as poet & photographer.

   1. me too Glenn – it’s the wabi sabi way

3. Poignant description and photo. She’s seen better days but still carries on as she can.

   1. I have been photographing her for some years – the decay is slow but sure

4. Being roped to a post is a very fine description of belonging and still home for shorebirds, lichen and sunlight..

   1. and also the sense that she might just sail away unless tied 😉

5. Wabi sabi for real. She looks to have been a beautiful boat!

   1. she has something that age has not withered 🙂

6. She is a beautiful craft, lilting and tilted, and home for much life still. It would be interesting to see the changes in serial photographs, like how Monet used to paint the same scene on multiple canvases through the day to see the changes as light shifts. It would be interesting to see her in time lapse. And those birds, indeed always so prim aren’t they? Love this poem Laura.

   1. Thank you, The only time lapse I have are memories over several years and the occasional photo

7. Excellent writing Laura — wonderful descriptors. Houseboat heyday, like it!

   1. Many thanks for your appreciation Rob

8. Every vessel has both history and personality–yours comes alive. (K)

   1. so right! her personality has held me captive 😉

9. Stories to be told in the relics of yesterday. (Boats or people … there is a sameness!)

   1. indeed

10. I love how you see her for what she is (and also for what she was)… this is so fitting also for some old people.

    1. associations that fit myself 😉

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