shot glass
title
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Tyson West


 

Dry Tortugas

(a bref double )

Once mom and dad with Dave and I, aged three,
discovered tropics from our Key West flat.
The Navy drafted dad and us to serve
far from familiar Boston ice and snow.
Our parents quarreled for father wished to see
the Dry Tortugas westward in the gulf.
He gushed of coral reefs with darting fish
and dreams of sunken gold from Mexico.
Our mother warned of sharks and missed her cold
so father never voyaged there, but that
loss sparked my trip into those magic depths
then told dad what he missed so long ago
white sand, blue sea and silver – he just sat,
with all he lost since, he'd forgot that Key.