Kayaking on the Obediah River

Feeling nothing behind as you dip paddle into river
Up to cows on the bank looking at you for answers
You silently let them down, paddling onward
Past wooden shipwrecks
And Irish skeletons
Feeling the wake from gliding water-skiers
It hits you a few minutes later
Like the morning after a fight
The first day of winter
Maybe we are all like this
Not feeling consequences until years later
A commercial on TV in an empty hotel room
An extra blanket
On a train
The empty car echoing back
The voices of those
We’ve left behind