Winterizing the Boat

Always a fabulous fall morning
when we take the boat out of the lake,
we have trusted the weatherman’s warning
and succumbed to fear of a snowflake

when all around us autumn basks in sun.
Today you back up the truck to the trailer
and the hitch locks into place. Well done,
we load the boat and raise the propeller,

signaling the end of another summer,
and acceptance of the coming winter.
Once approaching, like a distant drummer,
old age has now turned into a sprinter

as we measure the passing of time
each Autumn, against our dwindling prime.

***

Dianalee Velie is the Poet Laureate of Newbury NH.  She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and has a Master of Arts in Writing from Manhattanville College. She is the author of five books of poetry, Glass House, First Edition, The Many Roads to Paradise, The Alchemy of Desire, Ever After and a collection of short stories, Soul Proprietorship: Women in Search of Their Souls. She is a member of the Vermont Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, the New England Poetry Club, the International Woman Writers Guild, the New Hampshire Poetry Society and founder of the John Hay Poetry Society.