“Isabel was here!”
Scribbled near a hip-high line
Sobering reminder on a shop wall
Monument to one battle in the long war
Locals know what tourists disbelieve
City Dock is just from the Bay on reprieve
Sandbags the inevitable only delay
And Compromise Street admits water’s way
Ego Alley lies in certain wait
For hurricanes and spring floods
Waits to spill kayakkers over bulwarks
To paddle with the ducks among the parking meters
Only Alex Haley holds his seat, very wise
Still reading to the kids while the waters rise
Rooted Noah-like in the promise of a kinder day
And the release of land from the grasping Bay
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Copyright Deborah McGlauflin, August 2011. All rights reserved.
This poem structurally reflects the uneasy truce between Bay and land. It is a compromise between the free verse of the first and third verses and the rhymed verse of the second and fourth verses. That somehow seemed appropriate.