Backyard Boats
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On blocks and rusted trailers,cracked hatches, moldy seats, chewed wires —squirrels hulling acornsunder a pitted propeller shaft.
Dozens in town. Sun-cracked ski boats,bloated cruisers, McNary's Catalina 22 —dog sleeping on the dirty heap of sails. And our WhalerDad keeps saying he's gonna take outthis year
is filling with oak leaves again, bitterblack-stained decks, cracked chromeand tarnished cleats where we tied upat Newport with a cooler of crabsand two coho.
What colossal cresting dreamgrounded our pleasures so high in hulkswe have to mow around? Try not to think of the money,the sweat, or
even that beautiful gopher-wood arkrotting on Mount Araratafter God said Enough. [End Page 497]
Henry Hughes is the author of four collections of poetry and the memoir Back Seat with Fish. He edited two Everyman's Library anthologies on fishing, and his essays and reviews appear regularly in Harvard Review. He teaches at Western Oregon University.
