28 April 2017

The hewing,
into shape,
oars moved forward
man to fish,
to hunt,
to explore territory
beyond his grasp;

yet oars, also,
that moved man backwards,
to channel
the savage in him:
oared ships of war,
triremes, longboats,
Persians, Hellenes, Vikings,

oars of devastation, the irony
that so fine an invention
could be used for such destruction,
as are aircraft,
in our present day, the irony
that men named Wright
would invent a vehicle
oft used to enact such wrong.

Philip Kuepper
(24 April 2017)

Editor’s Note: April is Poetry Month, so HTBS will publish some more of Philip’s poems on Saturday and Sunday.