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Canoe Trip to Possum Lake

We carry a canoe along the path
and climb under a canopy of oaks.
The forest invites us.
It was a test we passed as boys
when we hiked here over rotting logs.
Yellow jackets swarmed out
and attacked us.  We were intruders.
The canoe grew heavy with fear on our arms.
We couldn’t drop it and run.
We reached the lake a half hour later.
Each of us swollen.
This story passes between us.
It was a victory we tell ourselves;
we could have died from our wounds.

We return again to this familiar lake.
We make a path each time.
I see my youth on the water. 
We plunge into the cold lake splashing,
getting wet fast, and measure our worth.
We want to be sure boys canoe here
again and again.  There are no adults.
This is the water of boyhood
and the fear of being lonely.
It grew up and grows older.
We make what we can out of water.

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Mark Goldman began writing poetry in high school and continued through his college years. After a brief time in Chicago with VISTA, he served in the US Army with a 13-month tour in Korea then returned to work in Philadelphia and participate in the poetry scene before moving with his wife to Pittsburgh. Here, he became involved with the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange and completed his first volume of poems, Window Behind Stars. In 1982 he was accepted into the MFA Playwrights Program at CMU and completed three plays — Cool Cucumbers, Little Canyon, and Deuce's Wild. Then for nearly 20 years with the demands of work and family, he found little time to write. Now, he is working on a collection of poems, Canoe Trip to Possum Lake as well as a play, Sweetwater. He currently works as a director of technical services and sales in horticultural sustainability.