MESSAGE FOUND IN A BOTTLE by Gerry Sloan

(To My Granddaughter Zoe

on Her First Birthday)

Zoe, I wish I could tuck this note

in a time capsule to be opened

in 2100, when you will be

the same age as me, given proper

genes and half a chance at longevity.

I hope you can forgive your ancestor

for not taking better care of the planet

we both call home, though by then we may

have colonized the outer reaches of space.

To know our lives overlapped momentarily

means more to me than I'm able to express,

though I observe you touching the wonder

that has always taught me to taste and see,

to build my ship of death with the certainty

that someday you'll set sail and follow me.

Gerry Sloan is a retired music professor living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His poetry collections are Paper Lanterns (2011), Crossings: A Mirror in Verse (2017), and a generous selection in the chapthology Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry (2022). Recent work appears in Arkansas Review, Cold Mountain Review, Slant, and Mid/South Sonnets. Website: gerrysloanpoetry.com