The Sand Hill Review http://www.stanford.edu/~sandhill Spring 2004

Kayak

The ice floe of the moment

carries with it hunter as well as hunted.

In the igloo of the heart

survival is all that matters.

You have heard the story

of the bone blade in the bait of fat

spilling bear blood on the white tabletop.

You carry the story in your own warm stomach,

its moral wrapping you in seal skin,

laced tight and final.

Outside is frozen and congealed,

sizzling wind chill.

Inside, the world is kept in a hard kiss

and mad embrace

rolling up from a capsize to seize

the vanishing moment.

David Humphreys