Canoeing

"Canoeing" written in 2011

Millions of drops

Collect, creating a liquid lane,

Buoying the green canvas

As it glides over the Earth.

Dragonflies zoom by,

Their wings’ rhythm constant

As the snarl of a marching band snare.

Out ahead sprawls a vast glassy screen

Upon which the sky is thrown upside down.

Looking into the glass,

I meet my twin staring blankly back up at me.

That spirit is a part of the Woods.

He lives here without concern

For grades or parental control.

The other is enslaved

By daily tennis practice

And the paper route past Mrs. Johnson’s house.

Looking forward,

The horizon reveals rolling ridges

Swollen as a sleeping black bear’s belly.

As my eyes journey

Over the slope of the hill as it falls into the earth,

My imaginary world comes crashing down

As Paul, the “trailblazer” of the North, reminds me of reluctant responsibility,

Hollering: “Hurry up Grant, your dinner’s already cold!”

Me on a Keewaydin Wilderness Trip in northern Québec. July 2010.