Endeavor by Lino Tagliapietra

Gondolas suspended in air like fish out of water

they are so still, strung up to mimic a mobile

but outside among the trees they might float

on their soft colors of red, white, blues

and yellows, apprentice to the breeze.

They could be pirogues on the bayou

reed boats on Lake Titicaca

dugouts on the Amazon

canoes on Lake Gitche Gumee

sampans fishing on the Yangtze

prayer boats set adrift on the Ganges

kayaks on the white waters of the Colorado

But they are glass, stretched and tapered

hung in an arrangement that resembles a flock.

After the heat and heavy lifting in the alchemy

of creation, the artist dreams of being a boy again

in his father’s gondola drifting along on the Grand Canal.