By Lori Joseph
Member-at-Large

 

While aboard the Breezin’ Thru, Captain Tilghman Hemsley III handed me a photo of one of his paintings in progress. Tilghman asked me to write about it. The painting reveals the artist painting a young woman standing at the window. My poem, “Admiration,” shares a glimpse of the passion and musings one can experience on or off of the water.

 

From the doorway, he urged her.

Neither of them belonged

in this room scaled with memories.

 

He remembers an early morning in May, sailing the Potomac.

The shoreline was green with life, of all different hues.

A warm breeze layered with scents of sweet honeysuckle and brine

evaporated as he headed to deeper waters.

To where he felt most at home. Most himself.

 

To where the water was clairvoyant.

Her glistening facets and lapping rhythm, mesmerizing.

Steadying himself, he breathed in her beauty.

Attentive, to her ebb and flow.

 

With a trembling hand he painted her body,

unrestrained and lean.

Oh, how he loved.

 

From the window, she knew-

where they belonged.

 

She envied his freedom to travel between land and water

 

She knew the sunlight reaching across the expanse

would draw her back.

 

Fluid admiration, too beautiful to ignore.