A boat can float capsized,
keel in the wind for pushing.
Gunwales under water guide her drift.
No damage; no crack in the keel;
no boards burst through canvas
letting lake pass through.
But even watertight this craft bears patching:
no telling what can seep through weave.
One can caulk the hull by palette knife;
brush the canvas red as September maples;
seal the gunwales green as jack pine;
varnish the ribs and thwarts a golden ochre.
Thick viridian will staunch the bleeding,
cobalt blue congeal the sky around the eye.
If the pigment glues the forest in
the eye cannot disengage from trees,
is not askance at the pond's reflection.
Trees are felled, birds fall, beavers lapse;
better to be bound by leaves,
or left for mud among the reeds.
2009
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