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The Day My Dad Let Me Drive the Boat
by Michael Escoubas

It was when he said,
I trust you,
that everything changed.
At fourteen, I stood in the seam of time,
more than a boy, less than a man,
not really one thing or the other.

I knew dad's ten-horse Evinrude
better than the book:
one-part oil, two-parts gas,
three strokes on the choke, then rip the cord.

In looking back, I'm with him now
on the sun-bleached, wooden pier,
fishing gear in hand, the boat swaying
as the waves swoosh in, clouds dancing
in the blue summer air, I hear him say
once again, I trust you.  

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