Tiki

 Tiki

john clare 

Zackary, I trust you'd be pleased with Tiki,

Since you left I took her and 

Stripped her down to the bare aluminum

Then tenderly applied two coats of moss grey

Not quite the forest in your glory sixties

But the choice of Landon

I do not think you ever met

And who like you I shall never forget

We mulled changing the name

But a thought came from afar

And so we made a stencil and with the pencil, with care traced Tiki exactly as you had in the sixties, maybe even the fifties.

Tiki has been with me nearly all my days, certainly all of Landon's

We no longer attach the old white five horse Johnson, bearing your last name, it rests in the shed, it's gas-oil long bled.

Days like these after the washing, I take Tiki out to the sunny spot in the yard. And I take turns sitting bow and stern.

And I lay back and I think of Zack, and Landon and his son

And the passing on of Tiki,

Of the stamp tattooed on her stern

Telling all where she has been

And we float atop the green ocean.