31 October 2021

By Philip Kuepper

Inconceivably, a leaf
set him to thinking
of the shell he rowed,
when still a boy,

the leaf floating past him
as he stood looking at the river,
a leaf facing up,
like the open palm of a hand,

inviting him, he thought,
to imagine it a shell
to be rowed.
He rowed it with his mind.

(13 October 2021)