OTHER SIDE Poem by Joke van Leeuwen

As the rower realises how it's possible
(goat first, then wolf, bring goat back, leave behind
take the cabbage, then get the goat again) he sees
the cabbage disappear into the goat, the goat into the wolf.
Roam, wolf, he thinks, roam and raven.
I'll take my boat alone to the other side
which won't then need that title anymore.

The water asks in passing: what does
a rower want with banks? I'm waiting
says the rower, for what will grow from the clay
which I'll give an unexpected name, waiting
for an animal that will come heavy with milk
make sound without words and
turn out to fit my lap.