Gluskabe's RiverGluskabe's River

by Marnie Reed Crowell

All night long

as the storm tracks by

sourtherly winds from out at sea

push ocean back into the bay.

Hear Guskabe

paddling by in this stone canoe,

the shouts and smacks

as he urges Penobscot River

back,

back by waves,

back past the Eggemoggin Reach,

on beyond the quiet Bagaduce,

through the place where a sinewed seam

stitches sky from bank to bank,

on beyond Bangor,

rippling round the Indian Island,

on to Orono, to Millinocket

threading through Maine Woods,

till pure and clear

what's lift of water

-clound-

reach Wabanaki heart,

Katahdin

and regroup

For yet another schussing run

downriver throughGluskabe' s River the towns and mills,

out to dawn

and sea.