Aboard this wide
lumbering beast,
we pass through miles of mist
Fog rising of the sea;
a long warm exhale
leaving our hair and our coats damp.

In our insulated passage
the trees hardly notice us
these hearty coastal forests
lost in thought
staring out over hte dark water,
staring back across centuries.

I wonder
what the eyes of these pine have seen
how many times
have the delighted in the breaching of a humpback,
watched with amusement
as the fat seals sun themselves on the rocks,
bulbous bodies glistening and jostling above the water
or held their breath
s they feel the encroaching silence
that precedes the armada of black fins
slicing smoothly through the glassy water.