Skin Canoes

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Swallows carve lake wind,
trailers lined up, fish tins.
The fires of a thousand small camps 
spilled on a hillside.

I pull leeks, morels from the soil,
fry chubs from the lake in moonlight. 
I hear someone, hear the splash, groan 
of a waterpump, wipe my mouth. 
Fish grease spits at darkness.

Once I nudged a canoe through that water, 
letting its paddle lift, drip.
I was sucked down smaller than the sound 
of the dropping, looked out
from where I had vanished.

© Carolyn Forche