Your paddle dipped into the water 
like a mother’s ladle.                                                   
                                                        This I know. 
On the riverbank and between the staffs of trees            
                welled the black syrup of night. 
We let the slow glide of the river           
               take us. We did not speak. The moonlight coursed bone white 
inside the dark folds of water             and gave them life.              
               I remember you pointing: 
Look.              The underwater mullings of salmon            
             drawn to our light. Deep turquoise undulations spilling under us 
like the primal ink. All around us in the hidden lofts of the pines             
                and behind the shrubs                         
                            the creatures of the night chittered                                                                                                                                                           and cooed 
and paid us no mind.                Over the rocks in the river 
the water ran like liquid glass              and when it ran up against the hulls of our canoes                            it slipped past us as easy as a lullaby 
and paid us no mind.       Your silhouette waiting.        Your silhouette            
              turning.                                     
                                             Where are we? you asked.                                    
                                             This I did not know. God,                                                                      
                                                                                    I pray I never know.   

A Cabrera's poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in The New Guard, Brain,Child Magazine, Colere, Acentos Review, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Best Travelers' Tales 2021 Anthology, Mer, Deronda, and other journals. Her short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Award and adapted for stage by the Bay Area Word for Word Theater Company. She writes, teaches, dances and ride bikes in San Francisco, but not always in that order.