La Chalupa, the Boat

I am twenty,

drifting in la chalupa,

the blue boat painted with roses,

white lilies—

No, not drifting, I am poling

my way into my life. It seems

like another life:

There were the walls of the mind.

There were the cliffs of the mind,

There were the seven deaths,

and the seven bread-offerings—

Still, there was still

the little boat, the chalupa

you built once, slowly, in the yard, after school—

This poem appeared in Little Boat by Jean Valentine, published by Wesleyan University Press, 2007. Shared here with profound gratitude.

10.09.2026

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