Detente When Traveling

An Incident of International Importance at Lock # 3, Welland Canal

She is a rusty old rogue

Casually herded through seas

By a passel of Bombay sailors

To the place where ships climb steps.

American eyes anchored on shore

Feast silently on darkly glistened heads,

Sarongs and sandals askance on rope-strewn deck.

A foreign murmuring.

As the freighter eases her elephant size

Into locked canal waters

The lull is startled by

The shimmer and plink of arcing pennies.

Quick retaliation on the part of the crew

Starts a shower of waves and smiles,

Brotherhood is the word coined

In suddenly clear air.

Note:  This is a true incident.  I loved the idea of spontaneous action/reaction between the ship's crew and the onlookers on shore with smiling faces everywhere I looked. 

from No Name Harbor, Poetry of Barbary Chaapel

http://barbarychaapel.eveusa.com