A Corps of Cinquains

Corps of Discovery

Forty
men, hand-picked, by
two captains navigate
upstream, keelboat, pirogues, canoes
poled or

pulled, towed
against currents,
shifting sandbars, dead tree
snags hidden on river bottoms,
always

heading
north and west to
unknown Pacific shores,
forged by trials, hardened, strong to
the core.

© Doraine Bennett