Marianne Gambaro A Walk on the Dam at Sunset

A Walk on the Dam at Sunset

As sunlight slides up the oak-leather November hillside above already leaden water, our shadows are giants on the buffer’s asphalt ridge, five times our true height at least and far slimmer than their owners. Stove pipe legs kick out an awkward gait. Shadow hand grasps shadow hand. Contrails make cat scratches between the setting sun and a fingernail-clip of moon impatient to own the sky.

From the far end of the dam, now in shadow, a disembodied flute plays Amazing Grace, prelude to the á cappella, each soulful note revealing a lifetime. Straggly grey hair overhangs his shoulders nearly hiding the Semper Fi patch on once black leather jacket, now as faded as its wearer. We nod as we pass. He in turn salutes us or perhaps the coming darkness.

Marianne Gambaro

Marianne Gambaro’s poems and essays have been published in print and online journals including Mudfish, CALYX, Oberon Poetry Magazine, and others. She is the author of Do NOT Stop for Hitchhikers. She lives in verdant Western Massachusetts with her talented photographer-husband and two feline muses.