It was

a parade of ships, passing yearly through Thimble 
Shoals and the Chesapeake, into the downtown 
harbor. It was the unfurled romance of barques, 
wooden-hulled sloops and schooners— the Gloria, 
Vela,  Esmeralda, Oosterschelde. When and If, Patton’s
dream to sail around the world when the war was over, 
and if he lived through it. A solemn choir of brown 
pelicans watches from the docks, their own six-
foot sails folded. In the 1500s, Magellan's fleet 
took a year and a half to reach the Philippines 
from Spain. Container ships from Shanghai arrive 
at the port terminal in just over a month. The pelican
dives from 60 feet in the air to spear a fish. It tilts
its head a little sideways, then swallows it whole.