The IceBreaker's Symphony

The river looped and
Fell across the riffle
As he nudged the port side
Underneath the Boulderfield
That rose like a wave above her
Downeast Shore.

He picked his spot, judged with a quick sureness
That comes from having a history-
He cut a diagonal across her locked belly
Kicking loose a snowfall mimicry
The illusion of a solid
Now broken up and the first movement
Risen like Double Bass sections, slowly bowing
Tenor meets Soprano, just
As pebbles pulverize into a soundless mist.

Stantions disappear, the curve of the bow, sunken
And doing the major work-he turns diagonal again
Zagging back and then the water sucks up from
Beneath, prattling and shaking gently in this
First movement, ended as the next begins-
He Cuts
He Cracks
The year is just ending in his calender
The River moves south as he finds a center

Deep water drops off the cut and the riffle
Floats and moves as if the one is dancing
On oil, the thick slurry, so grey it appears
As if black.

He gets out in front
Gets back to that visible center
Turns with steady, bilge tipping assuredness
Until he faces the groaning field he has cut
And redleased.

Aft tilts back as he accelerates, lifting the
Teeth of the fore section and with a momentum
Known only by these icemen on their icebreakers,
He begins a crescendo, splitting the freashwater
Burgs, releasing the miles and miles of pressure,

And the rip and the rap of summers warm estuary
Moves to the ocean as if
A pinhole has released her in all girth and
A vast far reaching music fills his ears

Icebreaker runs to the sun as she falls
Before him.