Margaret Atwood - Death of a young son by drowning 1970 lyrics

He, who navigated with success
The dangerous river of his own birth
Once more set forth

On a voyage of discovery
Into the land I floated on
But could not touch to claim

His feet slid on the bank
The currents took him
He swirled with ice and trees
In the swollen water

And plunged into distant regions
His head a bathysphere
Through his eyes’ thin glass bubbles

He looked out, reckless adventurer
On a landscape stranger than Uranus
We have all been to and some remember

There was an accident the air locked
He was hung in the river like a heart
They retrieved the swamped body

Cairn of my plans and future charts
With poles and hooks
From among the nudging logs

It was spring, the sun kept shining
The new grass leapt to solidity
My hands glistened with details

After the long trip I was tired of waves
My foot hit rock the dreamed sails
Collapsed, ragged

I planted him in this country like a flag