Bowen Island
By Jeannine Marie Pitas - Buffalo, New York, USA - 2 August 2013
For Daniel Cowper
I
light
dancing on water
when you reach to touch,
it retreats
but it still
touches you
II
seasickness
relieved
when you reach the top deck
ocean spreads out before you
and there stands the mountain
where the Ark finally halted
III
deep-forest licorice root
salmon berries, salal
Honeymoon Lake hidden
among pines, Douglas firs
the berries in your mouth
release a spirit
that spreads its roots
rustles against
the walls of your chest
and caresses you
from the inside
IV
the dock sways
as you let your feet hang
over the cold waters of
the Pacific
the ocean you try to hide from
deep amid island firns,
red cedars, mushrooms beneath
fallen maple leaves --
the ocean that holds
the world inside it
will always come back
to find you