The Diomedes
Summers he would sail for Alaska
working the crabbers as deckhand or galley;
autumns returning with old-weather stories of
clam catchers, fur trappers, and the twin isles
of Diomede: two miles and a continent between them;
and how, in winter, when the straits froze over,
the islanders could walk from one to the other,
crossing the sheet for family, scrimshaw,
soapstone, to marry, passing the date line
that ran through the channel, stepping
between days as they went.
