Reliving: an OBX Poem IV

Day 4

Diamond shoals
inside the starting gate
a leopard eel
spotting famished clientele
leads sea biscuit
neck and neck with ferries

reaching windswept
waves to ocracoke
over on the ocean turn
in-between the garish buoys
a silver bend of dolphin
surfaces

only to be overtaken
by white corrals of wilder
ponies on the beach rail
all four unisexual
bicycles
passing at the coffee break

no saltwater cowboys
challenging iced mocha
wheeling over oyster shells
old stretches left of howard’s lane
just behind the inlet jetty
blackbeard’s

in a sound position
for the mainland ferry
squeezing through the whitewashed
lighthouse
going inside for the first time
winding stairs the lone pacesetter

while a roadside horse
grazing at the far turn
jolly roger on the outside
side by side with laughing
gulls and pelicans
salsa and blue ribbons

searching through the pirate’s chest
for victory wear or
other champion paraphernalia
survives a closing challenge by
security
as the ferry passes them again

stumbling on the wall
lee robinson
throws in a sun-washed hat
before the duel at buxton gates
between a trashy find
and some ambassador’s lost son

finally at the final stretch
a little grille turns on the heat
around a back door
barbeque and
the winner by a wing
was chicken.