The Art of Doing Nothing: An Ode to Ferry Boats
Ferries are a salve against a society that prioritizes productivity above all else.
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
I too many and many a time cross’d the river of old,
Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow
—Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
vertigo
The Lover
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
fall in love.
We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry.
The Lover
Tatum Dooley is a writer living in Toronto. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Real Life, the Hairpin, Jezebel, and elsewhere. Follow her on twitter @tatum_dooley
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