Dora poured cereal in a bowl.
It was not morning.
She added no sugar.
She placed the bowl back in the cupboard.
The cupboard without cups.
For years the bowl sat uneaten in the cupboard.
Over this time the cereal’s goal in life changed
from being a semi-nutritious breakfast
to being a lighthouse keeper on Maine’s coastline.
The bowl did not wish to become a lighthouse keeper
or visit the state of Maine
but it did wish to visit the beach to read a summer novel.
For reasons I never understood
Dora brought the bowl of cereal on our trip
to Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy.
The tidal range in that location averages fifty-two feet.
It averages three feet along the rest of the Atlantic coast.
I understood that Dora liked to visit extremes.
We located a lighthouse on a rocky shore.
We left the bowl of cereal by the the lighthouse door.
The bowl has not yet forgiven us.
copyright © 2021 Kenneth P. Gurney
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