He Rowed For This

He Rowed For This

He bartered his time
to row between
the twin islands
of his classes,
of engineering and design,
set in the river of his junior year
at university.

For him, life was design.
And as he rowed he drew
in his mind measures
of his own template
he laid on the world
at large as he went.

He knew the design he rowed
on the river could not last,
erased it as he rowed it, in fact,
which made him
want to barter more and more
of his time to row,

this the vanishing
point of design he sought,
to transcribe on drafting
paper in class the design,
invisable, underlying the visible
design of the universe.  He rowed for this.

Philip Kuepper
29 August 2013