The Pen

The Pen

Copyright 2010 Russell Leslie Howells

We shifted her just two days after we received the annual bill

Pen fees had risen higher than the spring tides

and over the last couple of years

the recession had taken it's toll on our finances

 Some bills just had to be culled and

it wasn't as if we had ever been made welcome

in the half/half yacht club marina anyhow

I think of it that way because one half is relatively new,

and the other half is in a continuing state of decay

The club house only opens on a Friday evening

and the only yachties in attendance are the winter visitors

because they havn't been put off yet by club politics

The rest are just local pissheads who wouldn't know

the front end of a yacht from it's stern

For 3 1/2 years now she has been caged in that small pen

her large mooring lines working hard day in,day out

to prevent her from being squashed against the jetty and pylons

so cramped,she was afraid to let her hull expand

in the heat of summer

Once or twice a year we let her out of her shackles

and unfurled her large tan sails

And we could feel her approval beneath our feet as she

dug herself in and forged her way through each wave

Her deck awash with spray,she would make headway

leaving all thoughts of that horrid tight pen in her wake

She would sail effortlessly across the deep blue Indian Ocean

and it always saddened us when we had turn her for home

But now she has new found happiness

with her anchorage in the fascine

Free of charge at this moment in time

as she drifts in endless circles around her twin anchors

Watching as new tender dinghies putt-putt past her

patiently waiting for her own familiar tender

and our daily visit