Sept. 20 03

Now that we’re at the harbor, let’s look at the water,
full of all sorts of interesting things.
Once upon a time the sea-beaver ruled the land.
His amphibious bearings negotiated the straits before they eroded.
Now his girth has disappeared from these inglorious shores
With their fisheries, their upscale bars, and their condos,
Although a gray seal pup will raise its head and blink
Above a gunwale. Come see, he’s here!
You have to risk getting closer to the water to see
What becomes rarer with each day, with each revolution
Of the sun or the cruiser propeller braiding the seawater
around its blades. With the naked eye
I count the creatures underneath, but the digits
my fingers make fatigue me. When we get to the edge
Of the pier I have promised to myself not to push you in.
The bones of Lord Beaver lie within a place way past my conception.

Anyway, the sea-beaver had the jaws of a giant [?]—
He crashed through branches and chewed through them,
Scouring the sea-floor for rushes and underwater wood.
He built his temples from sea-grass and plank-sized branches
And constructed roomy fibrous-walled houses for his extended family
who warded off outsider species such as the dire wolf or giant loon.
The first human, too far away, chopped harpoons from driftwood.
And amphibious cattle had not chosen to turn into porpoises yet,
Haunting coves or breaching water a stone’s throw from the ferry tours,
The mighty duck who drips braids of water from its heavy-treaded tires.
A rodent who weighed a ton, an underground river in Toronto,
a tail as long as a school bus careening off the guardrails
So that its giant kangaroo-like hind legs could spring forward,
And an underground river through which a giant rodent could swim
Provided that its satchel-sized lung sacs could remain expanded
Amid all that pressure, the pressure of layers of earth against
The silent water-flow that if harnessed right could slice through
alloys of bank safes, the nickel-plated studs hiding the steel bolts.
A rodent that could raise itself through the bank-vaults in Toronto