Beside the Marshy Reeds

                                                               By

                                              Douglas G Pollard Sr.

There was a time if you had an old boat you just took it up near the marsh in a few feet of water and opened her cocks. For years you looked towards her when passing by. People came down and took pictures of her and artists painted her. Swimming boys climbed aboard her and dove from her cabin top. Millions of minnows grew up in her secret hiding places over time.  As some of her planks came loose crabs move in feeding on minnows, shedding in her safe places.  She made a great meal for worms living in her wood.  Ospreys built a nest on her cabin top. You had not destroyed your silent friend the one you talked to who never talked back.  You had given her to the community and  she was enjoyed by all.  It was a noble end the sinking of her weathered silhouette below the quiet water. When finally gone there was no sense of loss. She had put back into nature what she had taken out on her daily fishing trips.   We humans would be so lucky.