Sailboats bobble in the cove
as wind pushes blue-green water
up over decks, then down

in undulating refrain.
Masts stand erect while rolled sails
grab the base of each pole, hold

what won’t be released.
One craft rotates in the breeze,
approaches a nearby skiff

nudging bows as they twirl
like bumper cars on floats.
But wind cleaves them apart

bobbers flatten on storm waves.
A couple steers to windward,
tacks through the jostling flotilla

in a scrambled game of chance
to avoid water wrecks.
Their surface time measured

not in nautical miles
but hand-over-hand tasks,
letting out just enough sheet

to sail away from what
might tip them over.

Alan Perry’s debut poetry chapbook, Clerk of the Dead, was released by Main Street Rag Publishing in 2020. His poems have appeared in Tahoma Literary Review, Open, Ocotillo Review, Remington Review, and elsewhere. He is a founder and Co-Managing Editor of RockPaperPoem, a Senior Poetry Editor for Typehouse Literary Magazine, and a Best of the Net nominee. More at: https://alanperrypoetry.com