I track the tideline like Salicornia roots
Through Spartina wreckage where the gull disputes
My tortoiseshell coat catches first pale light
Limonium blooms where the night takes flight
Dawn breaks over ferry slips empty and wide
Calico Dawn walks where the hulls once tied
No passenger footsteps no engine roar
Just salt wind singing through the wooden floor
Armeria cushions the bolt heads I know
Plantago pushes where the deck boards grow
I scent the herring oil in tarred rope fibers
My whiskers trace the rusted cable shivers
Dawn breaks over ferry slips empty and wide
Calico Dawn walks where the hulls once tied
No passenger footsteps no engine roar
Just salt wind singing through the wooden floor
Fucus spirals on the submerged pilings
Enteromorpha sheets where the barnacle clings
I leap the gap where the gangway once lay
My silhouette stretches on the aluminum way
Dawn breaks over ferry slips empty and wide
Calico Dawn walks where the hulls once tied
No passenger footsteps no engine roar
Just salt wind singing through the wooden floor
The captain's cabin holds a withered fern
Asplenium scolopendrum survives the burn
I curl in the galley on a sack of oats
Driftwood smoke rises from the stove's iron throat
No schedule binds this floating garden now
No tickets punched for the journey's vow
Only the rhythm of the turning screw
And the calico path I track and pursue
Morning ferry horn splits the quiet air
No passengers waiting no luggage to bear
I watch the ramp lower steel teeth to the shore
My paws find purchase on the wet deck once more
Dawn breaks over ferry slips empty and wide
Calico Dawn walks where the hulls once tied
No passenger footsteps no engine roar
Just salt wind singing through the wooden floor
Calico Dawn on the empty pier
Rooted in salt wind I remain here
