28 July 2018

The wind was not about
to let up, causing cut,
cut, cut
the river with waves,
each wave cresting
sharp as a blade,
that knifed the sides
of the boat, a rowboat
tied to the dock.
It knocked and knocked
like a gloved fist against a door.

We ran through the wind
before the rain, ran
to answer the knocking of the boat,
to answer the evermore
desperate knocking of the boat,
the evermore desperate
wind pushing at it,
the rain, the rain, in the ascendant.
We freed the boat,
pulled it ashore,
and rain home through the rain come.

Philip Kuepper
(22 July 2018)