I

Tim,
they said,
we cannot take the cats
where we are going
but you can have one
when we get there
and I asked

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where is there?
and
Missy, superior,
looked up over her oatmeal
and told me
to the Colonies!

a long way, and,
they say
it will be by ship

and I shall see
the sea.

II.

Today the letter
came
calling us to Plymouth.
Missy, Noel and I
were fetching windfalls
by the gate.

(Pippins)

then Missy
grabbed my hand,
squeezing till it hurt —
said
Look!

and through the open door
I saw mother at the kitchen table

crying

one rose apple
in her hands.

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III.

Gales again today
and I heard the carpenter
from steerage
swearing
that God spat
to make this wretched sea

the Bay of Biscay

and the biscuit
is too hard
for Noel to eat

Mother soaked it
but he wouldn't touch it
anyway.

IV.

Lessons on deck;
a strapping
when I told the Master
I'd lost my Company bible.

V.

He is gone.
Noel is gone

and I am in terror of these waves

He was just there
on the deck
between Missy and Mother —
then the water breaking over us;

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everything swept about
and Noel
gone

we wouldn't have been out
but mother said
Noel needed arrowroot
and we must fetch it
from the Surgeon

VI.

Now still,
the ship throws out a wake
like wings
behind us
The other children play tag;
run along the deck
to watch bottles
drift from bow to stern
and
the Master came, smiling, to me
told me what sport it was
to throw bottles and hats
to the sea

so I told him
that hat was for Noel,
and that he had my Bible too.