the black figure below the boat

We hear phrases: "He made me do it."

"I never wanted that."  The boy's boat gets

Pushed out on the sea, and before long the tidal

Currents guide it from beneath.  He goes to sleep.

He meets a woman, and marries her even though

He doesn't want to.  He says, "It was the current."

But some tiny black figure swims below the boat,

Pushing it.  This man or god works all night.

Then what?  Months go by, years, twenty years.

A lot of water.  The boat hits gravel.

It's an island - the kind where giants live.

"Don't say you didn't want it.  Just get ready."

~ Robert Bly

from Morning Poems