Lemon Bay

Nostalgic Look Back

I visited my great aunt and uncle during spring break from college traveling from NJ to FL by bus, my guitar squeezed next to my legs for the twenty-four hour trip. I’d never do that again, but the visit was well worth any discomfort. My aunt and uncle lived in central FL on the west coast, a small town on Lemon Bay

I saw my first cormorants, armadillos, porpoises, and best of all to me, pelicans. Their spread-winged elegant glide to rest on the bay contrasted sharply with their ungainly, frantic beat to gain altitude when taking back to the sky. I loved them. My uncle, long since gone, took me out in his dinghy with its tiny outboard motor. The porpoises stayed at a certain distance but certainly closer than I dreamed I’d ever see. My aunt lives in NJ surrounded by her children and grandchildren. She’s 103.

I know little about poetry but liked to dabble in it back then. This poem echoes the effect Lemon Bay had on me.

Lemon Bay

Shimmering channels darkening at bordering piles,

The homes of mussels

Blackened by sea-stained cormorant’s wings.

Sun-glared mullet leap

And distantly, the arch of porpoises,

Dim grays and deep, chill blue.

Wings full spread, pelicans glide in to harbor.

Perched on the sea wall, the blue heron and white egret

Dry in the sunset dusk.

The low sun’s fiery path points home,

Quiets, and dwindles to dark water night.