We paddled side by side
On the twin ponds
Surrounded by rocky peaks,
Gracefully
Upheld by white birch columns
A branching colonnade, blending green
Into the slopes
Each body peeling to show pink flesh
Underneath thin, stretched scars
We struggled through the stream’s current
Welcomed by
Fallen pillars
Buried beneath the kayaks
Remnants of past nations
They reached for one another
Stripped bone on bone
Branching still
Holding water and earth together
With delicate arms
A mastery of beauty in mineral soil
Which enshrines the dead,
Wraps seed against its breast
While the columns stay in place, tempered
By the wind
Around reeling vessels
White bodies glow against air
Waiting at the edge
For how long will you hold up the mountains?
