To be driven forward when sitting still

To kayak (verb) and kayak (noun)

To doodle the outline of your boat, which is the shape of closed lips

To butterbur, balsam, to adder’s-tongue

To walk past white water five years from now 

and instinctively seek your line

To use swim as an insult, a sign of mistake, as in, Did you swim today?

To have a latex neck and wrists

To be guided by the moon-silver underleaf of mugwort on the bank

To be an angler’s nemesis

To Teifi, to Wye, to Usk

To seek the playground of a weir, chute or other form of drop

To not show your mum the deep scratch along the crown of your helmet

where river turned you upside down, backed you into a corner

reminding you how low and dark her voice can go

To pillwort, fen violet, valerium

To neoprene

To spend all afternoon digging water a shade lighter than mud

To know a town from how its bridges echo

To be driven in someone’s car, damp, hungry, back to your starting point