Scandinavia (Revised)

i. Coastal Conifer Forest

We took three quiet buses
from Stockholm to Sarpsborg,
each an inching gray caterpillar
crawling carefully over
the feet and toes of mountains.

Passing blurred scenes,
we watched the windows like they were
water-spotted movie screens—
The setting: streets stretched like tendons
between city and country;
the main characters:
spruce, juniper.

ii. Oceanic Boreal Zone

Our boat hummed its way
along the dotted line separating
Swedish and Norwegian Atlantic.
The motor quit with a final resigned sigh
off the coast of a windy, nameless island.

I skinned my palms on tree bark,
tying up the boat as your Norwegian cousin
told us, translating,
that only one man has lived here
in recent history.

From this archipelago strewn
sloppily between Sweden and Norway,
we dug a hole in the rocky coast and started a fire
as the boat's tethers moaned
against splintered makeshift pilings.

The sun set two hours after midnight
with the certainty of sermon.