Penny Nolte

Mac Sailed the Boat

 

Mac sailed the boat

for an elderly couple

and was kept by them

 

Not quite a son

more like a pet

to be fond of

to be proud of

 

After Mac died

the old man

dry-docked the boat

 

But on weekends

with the old woman

he would sleep on it

dream on it

 

 

  

The Adventurer

 

While my coffee is reheating on the campfire, a kayaker drifts by. With his pack tied aft, a camera mounted to the fore, and a parka rolled against an improvised backrest holding him upright just well enough.

The crisp air lifts steam from my cup and curls it toward him on a light breeze. “Smells good,” he calls to shore, too far away for any response to reach him. That’s the way sound travels on the water around here, where fourth of July fireworks sound like musket shots and cicadas sing like eighteenth-century sawmills.

(first publication credit: Four Tulips)

Penny Nolte creates gentle narratives of family and place. After a decades-long pause from storytelling, her newest work is beginning to appear in literary magazines including The Avalon Literary Review, Macrame Literary Journal, and Journal of Expressive Writing, among others. Originally from upstate New York, with a fortifying decade in Colorado, Penny now calls the Green Mountains of Vermont home.