...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qJU8G7gR_g&ab_channel=EttaJames-Topic

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There's no denying the immeasurability

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Of that feeling - the indescribable way

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That it goes to setting bones,

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Sets to laying sutures and mending open wounds.

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When after morning's travel

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Across a small channel,

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Tucked into the corner

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Of a small aluminum ferry,

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After starting the engine

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Of an old Jeep Cherokee

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By wrapping the open wire, lined to the battered starter,

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Around the pins of an oxidized battery

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And hearing the spit of its gesticular motor -

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Of driving for a half hour,

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Riding the way in first

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To the smell of engine oil, evergreen

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And the odor of treated leather -

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Of pulling into that bay, Old Scotty,

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Adjacent to a wreck-yard

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And the warehouses of a shipwright,

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Past the piles of netting, the antique glass-bottles,

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The artifacts, and the rusted out triggers

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Of long abandoned firearms -

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Into that small nook, the little family cabin, 

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With Greaves chiseled into its wall -

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Only to set a record, spinning, beneath the pin,

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To turn the dials on the ancient lamps,

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Letting the wick climb and the smell of turpentine

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Waft over the scent of wet wood, 

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The comfort that can be found in mildew,

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Before cracking a bottle of Johnnie Walker

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With its black stripe and top-hatted figure,

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Pulling a carton of Pall Malls

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From between the other John Player's

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And listening to the empty ocean -

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The creeping tide, adrift, against the pier, 

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In the absence of cars, or horns, 

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Pedestrians, sirens, locomotion -

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And putting your feet up, 

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Draped in their woolen socks,

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To smile, stretching, beneath a sunsetting bay

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And quietly letting the wind, mark the passing of seconds

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As the world goes slipping 

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Soundly, if not soundlessly 

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Away. 

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Author's Note

(Just seven more weeks)

4-4-5-4-6-2-5-4-4-7

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

Well, I have always believed in appreciating the simple pleasures. Still, that was quite a journey just to get away from it all. Of course, the Johnny Walker could cover a multitude of sins, but driving for half an hour in first gear shows a really dogged determination. I hope it was worth it, and I hope the world slipped by peacefully, which is not always its wont to do.

[Ookpik]

The Jeep doesn't go past second, as the transmission starts slipping, and it's been some time since I've been on the island in question - but yes, for the span that I'm there, Johnny Walker or otherwise, it is unequally peaceful.

-Ook