artwork: vincent van gogh
Where
Water Might Be Blue
-after Van Gogh’s Rhônebarques,
1888
by Kristin Alberts
Boats float easy in the thick
river.
Ropes are heavy and hand-twisted,
made by some old man with leather
palms,
half-blind from gazing at rising
suns and
braiding frayed string ends
that bind the floating to the
steady,
boat to shore, man to land.
Planks lay
crossways flat, paths
between boats and docks, waving
walkways
where sea-legged men stagger under
piles of supplies, filling the
vessel
with all the land can offer the
sea as sacrifice--
armfuls of wood for fires at
night,
trunks of dried meat, drinking
water kegs,
and heavier loads of dreams and
wishes
for where waves would take them,
only the ropes holding them back
from finding days and places
where water might be blue.
~ previously published in Where
Water Might Be Blue
(Wm Caxton Ltd)
