Forty Days Adrift

A raft, a hook and a living gouache ocean, seen in cross-section: the sky and the swell above the waterline, and everything circling below it. Hook drifting debris, grow the raft plank by plank, still your water, dry your fish, read the foam to find the shipping lane, hold the tiller through a storm you saw coming three days out, and keep the shark off the corner post. Forty days to reach the lane or the island. The log book writes the last page either way.