- write4hire
Now and Then ...

Side 2 Track 5
If not now what then
Biking up London Avenue, Port Royal, small cottages with porch swings,
right and left, boats in the yards,
bait shop coming up just before
the turn on Sands Beach Road,
gliding through the marsh and
cruising left before the boat launch,
across hard sand, tidal swales, big ruts,
weaving between puddles and parked cars,
a Low Country Impressionist landscape
where the Battery meets the Beaufort,
children and adults bent over looking
for ancient shark teeth, Tracy Chapman
on the iPhone, as I wonder, ever wondering,
what’s next in this life, almost 76, riding
a bike like some kid, noseeums biting my legs,
cool breeze on my sweaty brow as I hit soft
sand, handlebars wobbling, hard pedaling
until I turn back off the beach, through
the marsh, past the bait shop, small cottages
with porches, boats in the yards, a right
on 12th Street, gliding left into Duck Blind Way,
coasting through the white picket fence,
left foot dropped onto the gravel, right leg
swinging over the seat, rolling the bike
up the step into the blue shed (rain
is forecast), telling myself once
again that if there is no now
now, then there is no then
then.
—SL, Port Royal, SC, April 2022