Boatrides in the Dark

2am on the day after 4th of July, the Bay was swallowed up into pitch darkness. My brother was at the wheel of his Mastercraft skiboat, sending the boatload of grinning friends spiraling and spinning on a satin surface of the familiar waters. We were spiraling & spinning without handlebars. 

Awakened with sweet drinks, and heavy stories. There were lobsters that never had that talk. It was weeks before autumn reunions and declarations, and hours before dawn came; humid & bright. We were toasting, and munching on popcorn.

All those nights of last summer, I'm holding onto certain minutes of, and the next mornings of...And I wonder when the right decisions got made. 

Cause now the relationships change, now the couples have to make important choices, and now I wonder if its even worth going out after 1am.

There's paths we might be meant to take, no clearer than a blind woman's vision...an after-midnight moonless Bay; calm and haunted after scalding fireworks. Calm and haunted by the movements of the engine and friend's hollers. 

Now I'm laughing with a hearty feeling-outside a diner-wearing boots and layers, and the air is breathable and cold again. Busy and busier, and calculating when the right decisions get made. The people making them, the people breaking, the people creating/moving/sleeping/learning/risking/digging it... and the people staying right there with you (wherever that is, wherever Baltimore can be).

Daily headphones: Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" will have you checking the stars and karma, and looking forward to Halloween. It's jazzy and old-school.