Bravado

by Richard Hartwell

Leapfrogging breakwater gravestones,
embracing air from boulder to boulder,
almost never missing, still tempting fate.

Out to the end of the Newport jetty,
tagging a steel pillar set in concrete,
navigation light dimmed in the fog.

Returning back block to block,
a gurney of granite if misstepped,
first leaping then looking to land.

Not a race, a challenge of agility,
missed only once, proved by a
fifteen-inch white badge of courage.