Robert Verdon, #202, one now gone

one

plywood canoe

manoeuvring through the mangroves of Mossy Point

freewheeling without wheels

paddles not handlebars, no brakes

no lifejackets then, and when the tide goes out,

soldier crabs become purposeful and re-take their territory

a little farther out, a fearsome red-flecked fin frightening me back inshore

later catching flathead after flathead on the sandbar, two of us, gunwales tantalised

one now gone