Photograph: Werner Schmidt

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The River, Victorious

The River, Victorious

The Thames lay a flat
sheet of beaten
silver in the grey
light, Harvard's boys
and Yale's boys posed
to compete.  They appeared
neddlework on the sheet
of the river, needlework
come alive when they shot
into motion at the start
of the race, their blades,
needles sewing fast
the cloth of the river,
the design of their work
dissolving as fast as it appeared,
the design of their work
thrusting them
toward the finish line,
their muscles pumped,
almost to bursting.  At the finish
they lay flopped over their oars,
gasping for air, pain incising
their faces, pain reflected
in the victorious beaten
silver sheet of the Thames.

Philip Kuepper
(13 June, 2013)

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