Beyond the Dam – The Third of the Four Sonnets
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Before and Beyond the Dam
Before the dam, the cardboard channel chokes
With pulp dumped up course from a paper mill.
Approaching the dam, we guide our raft with strokes
To shore and spend the night with a whippoorwill.
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Then being reassembled beyond the dam,
Our raft continues but submerged in spray
And rushes through the narrows like a ram,
With rapids piercing powerful Penobscot’s sway.
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The calming waters separate to four aisles:
Gliding through manless scenes in Eden’s grove,
We slide beneath an apple tree’s beguiles,
But on Pison we pass through an oak tree’s peaceful cove.*
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Ducks dart across the glass and flip their wings
In waves as thoughts behold immortal things.
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*Alternate third verse:
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Abruptly, it widens, mirroring the sky.
A boxcar’d silhouette returns our waves.
Trees lap like Gideon’s sentinels, to eye
Us gliding by as suspicious, spying knaves.