POEM: A ‘briny bay’ christens a baby

July 28, 2026

By Patricia Ranzoni

BAPTISM AT BLUE HILL

Today you toddle in salt water

your baby feet as worthy of this shore

as those of the rich new as you. This ocean yours

as much as theirs. Your curling toes claiming

tracks of beach for balance. Today

the cove is yours to grab by tiny fistfuls.

To hold earth's brink in your hands: to touch

and taste, yours to play. Today

this briny bay christens you Maine. Blessing

your little boy parts when you scootch

to smack the sea here under mountain

heath. Here where ancients

arrive by tide for the event and

changed, unchanged, by your wade,

bow out as sacredly as they gathered in,

knowing something not known before.

Knowing you.

—Ranzoni was Bucksport’s poet laureate from 2014 to 2025.

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