To Row The Seine

To Row the Seine

She rowed the Seine
Each time she needed
To return to her personal
Center of gravity.
There she could row
Through all that stood unmoving
On land, row through the shadow
Of the Eiffel Tower,
For an instant shivering it
Into slivers of shadow;
And the bridges, Pont Alexandre,
Pont des Artes,
Ages, solid,
Shadows she slivered to pieces
By the wake of her shell.
Rowing awakened her to herself,
Awakened her from the sleep
Of being land-bound,
Awakened in her the Marianne
Of her heritage. Rowing,
She came closest to being,
And being who only she was.

Philip Kuepper
(March 2012)