Berth

About this work

After the last horn dies, only the harbor office is still lit. Pogu is thirty-seven, the night-watch harbor officer. She is married. Her husband is piloting in another port.

Navy uniform, neat hair, a radio on her wrist. She will not put down the inbound stamp. “Inbound clearance is done.” Leave by the quay door and the night ends as a shift change. Stay after the radar goes empty, and it stops being a shift change.