Covet

Descent to Boathouse After Stroke

69 Descent to Boathouse After Stroke He remembers, work the right toe hard to make the stride go forward with the rest down wide stone steps to the boathouse where his cruiser rocks, hulking cradle on the water. At the dock he catches his breath, steadies, reaches for the rail, hoists himself aboard. He examines fittings, hinged lift, hatch, glass cracked on the starboard portal. He finds a niche the hired boy has missed with his brush and rag, dull place beneath the bow that does not shine. He stops before the engine door, remembers not to stoop, send blood rushing to the brain. Instead, rests left foot on the captain’s perch, listens to the engines whine far across the lake, the gun and cut of outboards hard against the wake. He knows he will not join that race. He turns, regards still water in the slough, and how it disappears into dark trees, 70 branches snagged with moss and drift, its brackish skin of insect wings, the mottled, uncertain depth. ...