TIME TRAVELER (Please support The Arts)

I followed the trail

that led into the shadows

of the dark woods.

Once in, I waited near a rope,

was handed spray for my limbs,

then a flashlight beamed where to sit.

I was transported—

back to the turn of the century,

no longer a tourist.

A sailing rig became a working voyage,

as I tried to retrieve a piano,

and developed a love affair.

In a previous summer visit, 

alongside German prisoners of war, 

I harvested our bountiful orchards.

The next year, I rolled up my sleeves

and tackled shipbuilding,

because our men were overseas.

Time, place, culture, history,

it is all there under the stars—

journey with the Northern Sky Theater.

                        —Deb Johnston

Danes Hall, in Wisconsin

“Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects.”
— Hans Christian Andersen