painting by Fay Collins
Bearhead Bay
“There is nothing more beautiful than the way the
ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no
matter how many times it’s sent away.”
--Sarah Kay
My collar
is very blue.
I work with my hands.
I’m a foundry worker.
I operate a crane
that pores molten iron
into nobake molds
to create castings.
It is
hot, dangerous
and dirty work.
I’m on the night shift.
I come home exhausted,
just in time to see
my wife off to work,
and my three kids
off to school.
I only get
one week’s vacation
a year, and we always go
to the coast to camp out
by the ocean
at Bearhead Bay.
We have a small
camping trailer, and the kids
sleep in a big tent.
We bring our own provisions.
It’s too expensive to eat out.
We go in July, when
the weather is mostly mild.
The high point of our trip
is when we rent a boat
and putt over to nearby
Ballard Island for a picnic.
On the north side
there are some rocky outcroppings
where noisy sea lions
like to sun themselves.
While beachcombing we
always find little treasures
to take home with us.
There’s a white beach
with shallow warm water
where the kids can swim.
The sad point
is always packing up
and heading home.
having to go back to work
for another year
before returning.
Glenn Buttkus
Posted over at d"Verse Poet's Pub
15 comments:
Charming, captivating, romantic even Glenn. With the kids in the tent, I hope there are no bears at Bearhead Bay. Nice write brother! 🙂
There is that same feeling I get when listening to Bruce Springsteen's lyrics, that picture painted of the life of that blue collar worker, dotted here and there...
Gosh I know that feeling. It always took me much longer than a week to restore myself from work, and I was very rarely really ready to go back. You've done a marvelous job of describing the vacation week, and the sadness of departure. Nicely done.
Glenn,
Only a week beachcombing for "little treasures" to take home, picnics and sea lions, and how short it seems, making longer the year before your return. I loved the opening lines: "My collar/is very blue" since the painting itself highlights blue, a blue that escapes the collar for a little while. Unexpected ekphrasis that detracts nothing from the painting and invests it with even more meaning.
Pax,
Dora
I like the way the poem uses blue as a symbol of oppression - that blue collar - and then as a symbol of freedom. Its a great response.
I love how you've woven a tale of the exhausting working life through this, and that one-week window of hope per year. I bet the kids remember it fondly!
A nice escape to Bearhead Bay.
The labors of a blue collar life make make any vacation or holiday, no matter the length, all that more special.
This is incredibly gorgeous writing, Glenn! I love how you evoke several moods of blue in this poem, from daily hectic schedule of one's life to times spent with loved ones on vacation. 💝💝
I remember the long trip home, the sadness of leaving almost wiping out the magic of the holiday.
Those weeks are precious gems, helping to keep a bit of the sea inside to get one through the hard times.
I love the way you describe that gloriocus one week of vacation and how much you still can do with very little... Ain's comment on Bruce Springsteen is very good.
I feel as if I could be in the stories you tell! Your descriptions are wonderful!
such vivid imagery, you escribe this lifestyle and it's small pleasures so well. Sadly this is the life of too many ...
your details took us there with you and our heart breaks with the packing, too.
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