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