28 December 2025

By Philip Kuepper

The shore came,
and went.
The shore is always
coming,
and going.
One rows by the shore’s
coming and going,
by the shore’s
permanent impermanence.
One rows depending on it.
One minute it is.
The next it isn’t.
One measures one’s strokes by it.
It is metronomic.
It is the hourglass effect.
Grains of shore
fall through the opening,
when, each minute,
the ocean touches it,
causing it crumble.
Nothing is still.
All is in motion:
The arms of the rower
moving the oars
moving the water
moved by the tides
moving against the shore
the rower is moving past.
Stroke, stroke, stroke,
each stroke a ticking
of the minutes
of the Universal Clock
that is beyond ever
stopping.

(30 November 2025)