After visiting with my sister
Joan, her husband Henri
and my niece Nathalie in South Melbourne Beach, Florida
By the sea
We sat
Scrying the mirror of our youth
Trying to retrieve meaning and more
Watching a heaving sea, pelicans at work
Ploughing through waves of nostalgia
In our sister-ship
Making up time lost but never wasted
Two little girls
Another time, another place
By the same sea, too long ago
Looked back, amazed
We cared enough to spy them out
They jumped aboard and we made four
Dancing down life's vagaries
Making meaning at last
Sails fully unfurled in a good sweet
wind
Mast tall against an autumn sky
Exploring mysteries that must remain
Negotiating inlets, avoiding storms
Remembering that treasure still unfound
Until the present brought us back
And four to two we back became
Until the next time we set sail our sister-ship