<I>for my parents with love</I> <br /> <br />Such a grand and festive lady <br />that steamer to Put-in-Bay <br />escaping her dock <br />just after dawn <br />leaving Detroit's factory din <br />moored to the Michigan shore. <br /> <br />Sunbeams glanced off waves <br />in lake Erie's tranquility <br />bound for Sandusky <br />and Put-in-Bay Island. <br /> <br />Clattering silver and porcelain <br />veiled by sweeter sounds <br />of congenial banter and <br />ballads crooned by the shipboard band. <br />playing late beneath the stars <br />for 'swing' and 'jitterbug' <br />reeds and horns and ritual beats <br />blazed the air with frenzied jubilation. <br /> <br />Paired in the rhythm section, <br />Jim drove chords from strings and pick <br />while Janice matched beat for beat - <br />fingers flying over ivory and ebony <br />until Detroit lights shone ashore <br />on the port side bow <br />where the Put-in-Bay would <br />re-tether to its Motor City pier. <br /> <br />How their union sealed is forever’s mystery. <br />Was it bonded <br />checking chords in a Gershwin tune <br />or on break over scotch at the bar <br />or with a sideward smile during “All of Me? ” <br />No one knows but the moment came, <br />as sure as rain to Lake Erie, <br />when Janice knew that Jim would ask <br />and he knew she’d answer, 'Yes.' <br /> <br /><I>Thanksgiving day, 2008</I> <br />(also Dad's birthday)<br /><br />Robert Charles Howard<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/steamship-put-in-bay/
