Let me say this upfront: I’m from the Northeast of the US
and everything about Miami in December
feels wrong.
Palm trees and halter tops
(do people still wear these?)
just shouldn’t be a winter thing.

Working this boat
with Captain Contemptible
does not arouse holiday cheer.
Still faithfully
3 sails a day
and a sunset cruise
(no different from the other sails
but with the mystique of changing light
the name changes, so too the price)
we put on our best keep-our-jobs
happy faces
for the tourists.

The crew live on land
except for me –
I bunk on another boat
on Key Biscayne –
So there’s none of the camaraderie
of shared living and working:
We do not share our lives;
we do not share so much as a meal.
When the work is done
we scatter –

My birthday in early December passes
(mercifully)
without notice, without mention
Miami is awash in Christmas
And in its ostentatious way
the city erects displays
blasts music 

strings lights.

I grew up with Chanukkah
now not so much a celebration
not a necessary affiliation
but something deeper
a link to ancestors
something that holds me –
The light of Chanukkah
it is this that speaks to me
The light that grows over eight days
from a single light
into a blaze.

I think of this as I step out
onto halyards
as I trim sails
as I answer tourists’ questions.

And then, I see it
one night on a sunset cruise:
there, facing the water
a huge ridiculous menorah –
the shamash and first two nights’ lights burning (electrically) bright
Each night after that I look for it
as its kitchy-flame grows
Each night I imagine I have set it alight
and when the menorah comes into view
I murmur the prayers
which for some odd reason
I have not forgotten

I know these lights have been set before me
in blessing
That there is no one to thank;
no one to join me in prayer
does not matter.
For centuries these prayers
have been uttered
and they continue still.
For six successive nights
on this watery bucket
I continue my joyful prayer.
Silent to my crew,
it is my secret
with eternity.
Prayer, this night here
and the world over.