The Ferryman's Labor

Two voices. The second enters before the first has finished. The gap is the poem.

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Voice A

I left the shore at dusk with a name I could not keep in either language

Voice B *(enters before A has finished)*

the name I could not keep was the shore I left

Voice A

the water between us is not a bridge it is the work

Voice B

the work is the water not the crossing not the arriving

Voice A

I ferry one word at a time and each one arrives changed

Voice B

each one arrives as a different word for the same missing

Voice A

the missing is the shore I left

Voice B

the missing is the shore I will not reach

Together *(the only moment the voices occupy the same line)*

the labor is the gap and the gap is the ferryman and the ferryman is the poem