Winter Port

I have long been fascinated by trans-Atlantic ships traveling from Rotterdam or Gdansk or any European port across the ocean, down the St. Lawrence Seaway, through a string of Great Lakes, and on to their final destination at the western tip of Lake Superior - Duluth, Minnesota. An inland waterway journey over 2400 miles long.

The Great Lakes, especially Superior, tend to ice-up in winter, closing down far northern shipping for about three months of the year. Though my travels have not taken me to Duluth in December, I once saw a photo of one of these "salties" materializing from a snowstorm, crusted in ice, and headed for her winter's berth. December snow never fails to remind me of that breathtaking image.



Winter Port


The iron ore freighter burdened
with frozen rime sprayed thick
by Superior's water and set
by December's cold emerges
from a stinging fog. Three throaty
blasts announce her late arrival.

The empty canal walkway covered
in ankle-deep, blowing snow
no longer harbors
greeting committees of waving
kids and curious tourists.

Only the lone operator of the lift
bridge the ship must clear
for a safe haven smiles in welcome.
He sounds a matching trio of salutations
as great heaps of splintered ice
close in behind her.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor