Boat Ride, Houghton Lake
Jan Mordenski
I.
Once the sun decides to cool off with an evening swim, we take our cue.
Unleashing our old rowboat from the withering dock, we drift out.
Lightly lifting and lowering the slick oars, we move in rhythm with the waning day.
The thin wind doesn’t put us off, doesn’t raise even the whisper of a wave
on Houghton’s polished surface, only serves to amplify the cocktailed voices
of friends and relatives lounging, lingering amid the cottage pines.
Seaweed swims alongside our small craft.
The younger uncles stir the gin, vermouth, which are clearer than ice water.
The seaweed changes from red to gold to green amid the sun’s watery plunge.
So do the clouds above us—a sure sign that we’re in for some rain,
at least enough to write about.
II.
As always, it fools us with its subtle overtures, but soon enough,
the rain is drenching our hair, our summer clothes,
pooling on the weathered sole of the boat.
Winds are roused by all this, shifting against us, against our metered strokes.
My cousin, a simple city gal, keeps looking about frantically;
we have to keep telling her to stay seated, to—please—relax.
Once the shore approaches, my brother jumps in the water, pulls hard,
manages to knot us to the dock, to drop a small hopeful anchor.
Cindy and Sarah manically scramble up the shore, sliding on the soaked grass.
But David and I, figuring we can’t get any wetter, pause to watch the lake—
so different from when we started out—it’s surface now a chorus
of watery craters, total turmoil. And the burned-out sun—nowhere in sight.
The wind rushes, moans—slow but long—and we know we’ll be back at school
so much sooner than we’d like to think.
About the Author
Jan Mordenski is a writer and trained folklorist who has taught at Mercy High School and the University of Detroit Mercy. Her travels—to England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and Australia—have given her a trunkful of knowledge, experience, and material for several poems, some of which have been published internationally. In the U.S., her poems have appeared in journals such as Black River Review, Hamilton Stone Review, The MacGuffin, and, most recently, Bluebird Review and The Raven’s Perch. Her poem “Crochet” was also chosen by Ted Kooser for inclusion in the online series American Life in Poetry. Jan’s most recent excursion took her south to the sunny climes of Indianapolis, Indiana—where her vehicle was sideswiped by a local resident; yes, there’s probably a poem in that, too.