I look across the gorge to Ontario—
same wilderness on the other side.
The great Falls plunge, three separate chutes,
over the bowl of ragged basalt cliffs
into the river flowing to Lake Superior.
Pounding roar, wall of spray, impassible—
here the voyageurs, bearing on their backs
more than their weight in beaver pelts,
slung their birch canoes onto their shoulders
and made le grand portage.
Wilderness ranges along the gorge
farther than the eye can travel.
United States / Canada / Gichi Onigamiig,
The narrow bed of Pigeon River
now the border between nations
that share the same terrain:
Falls, thick forest, gray cliffs of diabase.
I could almost hurl a rock across—
it would reach another country,
shared bedrock of Laurentian Shield.
Wilderness joins both sides together.
My father / myself,
his native land / and mine,
his parents' native land / and his,
our family river flowing over borders
from Belarus to Montreal,
from Ontario to New York.
I won't cross through Customs this time,
I'm close enough to know my father's laugh
inside the space inside the water
same on both sides of the Falls
Maxine Susman, Highland Park, NJ, has published six chapbooks and two full-length books of poetry, most recently Northern Swim (Ragged Sky Press, 2024). Her work concerns the environment and natural world, history, art, people and other creatures. She has been leading poetry workshops for many years and she teaches poetry-writing at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Rutgers University, earning the Distinguished Teaching Award. A Ginsberg Award finalist and multiple Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in dozens of publications including Paterson Literary Review, Fourth River, Canary, Blueline, Slant, Earth’s Daughters, and Crab Orchard Review.