Poem by Jim Culleny

Boat:
……… —Your slope is russet and graceful; seems soft.

Land:
……… —It is. I see it echoes the grace of your gunnels, stem to stern.

Boat:
……… —We approach your still grace, having been upon water all day.

Land:
……… —Who is that with you, the who with articulating sticks?

Boat:
……… —He rows, he brings me to you to lie in your shade.
…………. He imagines the sky is worth gazing into
…………. with you beneath his back; the painter has
…………. rendered us true and sure & his clouds
…………. follow the breath of wind as they must

Land:
……… —But I’m confused, what painter,
………… I am real and true and so is sky?

Boat:
……… —Yes, and so the painter is, and so am I.

Jim Culleny, 11/16/22
Painting by Jack Braudis