An evening to cap off a day...two hundred years ago and tonight. |
We have come to Boston driving halfway across the country taking turns driving or sleeping between rest stops so to get there faster. We spent today aboard the USS Constitution, in full sail leaving Boston Harbor behind us as we approach the open sea. Sails billowed in the freshening wind and we sailed back in time. He scampered up the rigging like a pro and waved to me from the crow's nest. He was silhouetted in the sun, a brave warrior defending our nation. 'Two if by sea...' We walked the decks of history today and tonight we walk in history's footsteps tracing red footprints down cobble-stoned alleys and up Beacon Hill. We were quiet making rubbings on an old tombstone of Josiah Otis outside Old North Church as high in the steeple-d window a lantern hung... 'One if by land.' We follow the foot prints down past Boston Common where a brass mother duck leads her ducklings across the path. 'Make way for ducklings'...whispered into the wind. Up Newberry Street to Quincy Market. A frenetic mass of humanity pauses to applaud a clown with size twenty green sneakers and a blue nose juggling firesticks while balancing on a unicycle. We meander into Durgin Park and exit munching on steak sticks and poor man's oysters as we skip along the Salt and Pepper Bridge and cross the Charles River. 'and I on the opposite shore shall be...' We've walked across thirty-six years `of two hundred years ago history today as well as two wars and an invincible ship. In a small cafe on a stone and brick terrace we sip steaming coffee; relaxed watching candle flame flicker across each other's face. He takes my hand and we sit in companionable silence as we listen to the Boston Pops orchestra play the 1812 Overture punctuated by cannon fire and fire works over the river. We've waited twenty years and crossed half a country to have this day and this night in Boston. He has lived his dream to walk the decks of Old Ironsides and I have lived mine to walk beside him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ July 19 (Your poem must be posted by 10 PM WDC time) Prompt Subject: Hot in the City! (Tell me about an evening outing to the city.) Word(s) to use: clown Word(s) not to use: city, street, light(s), building, noise, noisy, people, crowd(ed, s) Other requirements/restrictions: Show don't tell |