Unidentified Boat

by ..

Dawn Macdonald

 

a goat, a wolf and a cabbage need to cross a river.
the cabbage cannot swim, but that’s
okay, can roll under water.
can breathe beyond atmosphere

goatcabbageandwolf these go together
like peanut butter and anything that comes in contact
with peanut butter

the cabbage is earth, the goat air, the wolf fire.
the river is phlegmatic, the cabbage melancholic
but that’s assback
wards, an assbacked instrument
an undue attribution of intention to a tendency to roll

the wolf, meanwhile, is working on evolving wings.
the goat has eaten everything this side the bank except
of course its scraggy self.
the cabbage has no memory and yet
enclosed in near-spherical enclosure
encapsulates some prior trauma

the river runs perpendicularly to the narrative
the idea of a boundary is an idea
orthogonality isn’t necessarily a choice