Sunday, April 23, 2017

Canoe and Cranes


The bow of the canoe is laden with water
Autumn rain having fallen the night before.
I bail four or five gallons out
From the slanting hull
That points toward the wind ruffled lake.

On the distant shore, the trees are on fire.

I shove off and drift a moment,
Taking in the gentle rock of the broad beam
On wavelets
Where the light glitter dances across the water.

Water so shallow I push off the bottom,
Gondolier on a big pond,
Sand and muck and weeds,
Till I reach the deeper water,
Deep like prayer at midnight,
Dark and still.

Left side, left side
Right side, right side
Metronomic, the paddle blade
Thrusts aside the water
Trailing diamonds off its tip,
Gentle arpeggios of droplets
Scattering ripples in my wake.

The swans,
Cob, pen and cygnet
Trail me for a few moments
And then turn tail toward the west
And home or to find sustenance
In pondweed, stonewort, wigeon grass,
Who can say.

I stroke for the far shore,
Taking in the fading cattails,
The blazing maples,
And blink at the dazzle on the water
 
At the southern shore shallow water
And the sandy bottom emerges again
Sandhill cranes standing still
And some
With a sudden thrust of broad wings
Leap to the air
Others
Eye me with some caution or curiosity
Who can say
And stalk away on stilts through the shallows

Once only a pair graced this little lake
But after five rounds of the sun
Now a good four dozen
Bring in the morning with clattering calls across flat water
Maybe naming the clouds or the younglings
Or the reeds and cattails
Who can say. 

Turning back, eventually
When my arms began to burn,
The breeze comes up and
The shallow aluminum hull
Thrums like a bowed string and
Swings ninety
Before I can compensate.

the wind takes the left side
And I the right, picking a point on shore
And dipping into the water
When the bow swings starboard
It’s harder than it sounds,
Given no keel,
This beamy boat is slave to any zephyr.

Back in shallow water
I shove hard till the bow
Noses onto the grass
And I drag it up from the shore

Until another time.

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