Sunset: Cranberry Island

June 9, 2000

Even the water, eddying against the rocks,

seems to seek safe harbor.

Gulls call, fly circles, while the last ships,

half under sail half motoring,

glide in toward the harbor.

The setting sun sounds the bell.

Everything visible changes

turns more pink,

more orange. Shadows lengthen.

The breeze chills.

I am peering backward through time.

In a ritual as old as these glacial rocks

turning orange, then purple, in this light.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society