Inside Passage
by Michael Dylan Welch and Dejah Léger
First prize winner in the 2005 Haiku Poets of Northern California rengay contest. First published in Mariposa #14, Spring–Summer 2006, page 29. Written on the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton, Washington, and then on the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle, on 5 December 2004. Download or view the “Six Rengay” trifold, where this rengay also appears, on the Trifold Downloads page on my Graceguts website.
morning stillness—
the ferry turns
through a patch of sunlight Michael
the tug’s bow rope
tightens and slackens Dejah
uncle’s fresh catch—
the wood worn
beside the oarlock Michael
the whale’s hump
smoothes back into ocean—
my kayak rocking Dejah
a clanging of masts
from the distant marina Michael
first birthday—
he floats his boat
along the carpet Dejah