"The Sea" (poem)

Written in response to prompt #44 from Poetic Bloomings.

Koktebel, Ukraine (image credit: google)

 

 ~ The Sea ~

All four of us,

The whole compartment is ours -

Our cozy home

For twenty four hours.

My sister’s lucky :

Got to sleep all the way up,

I’m sure old enough,

But they said, “No.”

During the day though

They let me climb there,

I lie listening

To the railroad’s heartbeat:

Ta-dum, ta-dum… ta-dum, ta-dum…

Dozing off,

Waking up to the tinkling

Of glasses - hate the tea,

Love the glass holders:

Silvery-shiny, sun catching.

There’s more sun as we get closer,

During stops

Babushkas sell corn on the cob

And sweet cucumbers –

Won’t be long now.

I’m waiting, plastered to the window.

When I first spy it,

I mistake it for part of the sky –

Just another shade of blue.

When I realize what it is,

It starts playing games:

Peeking out, and hiding again,

Teasing, but in a good way.

It is there, I know it now.

Soon, very soon we’ll see it.

There’ll be a station first,

A small town with a salty breath,

A house painted white,

We’ll live in for a very long time –

A month –

A kind quiet woman

Will greet us at the gate,

She’ll feed us pelmeni

(The food I dread, I call them jelly fish, )

And her husband – if sober –

Will play an accordion, and sing.

Then there will be a hot path,

And ice cream you have to eat real fast,

Before it melts,

Sun hats – yes, but sunscreen – what is it?

And finally, we’ll see it. 

All consuming, dreamlike,

Inviting and generous, like a promise.

We’ll run towards it,

And it’ll wrap all around us,

Take us in -

My sister watching over me –

I’ll look up, wet and happy,

And see Mama and Papa,

Their impossibly young faces,

Smiling at us from the shore.

Live for the Love of it,

The Happy Amateur