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Karen McAferty Morris

Prickly dewberry vines are creeping over
these weathered stairs, the handrail is splintered,
the platform over the sandy beach ends abruptly.
A long-ago hurricane tore away the dock.
Only eight pairs of dark pilings embedded
with barnacles remain.
Fleet cloud shadows skim the silver bay.
I am at the limit of where I can go.

The dock was once a pathway into its heart.
We’d set out, alert for mullet or blue crabs
or that odd old needle-nosed gar.
In stormy weather the blue heron would stand
at the end for hours watching the waves,
and we loved to sit there while the sunset
ruddied our skin and glasses of white wine.

I don’t know when I will replace it,
so much is already irreplaceable.

On a calm winter afternoon like this,
I can build a fire on the small bluff
overlooking the water, and if I sit very close,
it will warm me.
I may see a dolphin’s quick glistening crescent
or seabirds like blowing bits of paper, and imagine
a yellow kayak making its way back home.

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Karen McAferty Morris
Karen McAferty Morris’ work, recognized for its “appeal to the senses, the intellect, and the imagination,” has appeared in The Louisville Review, Persimmon Tree, Canary, Humana Obscura, The Mackinaw, Rust & Moth, and Passager’s 2025 Poetry Contest issue. Her collections Elemental, Confluence, and Significance are national prize winners. Alpenglow was published in 2024. She is lucky enough to live on a bay in the Florida panhandle.