SS Keenora
She’s landlocked now, dethroned
river queen, gussied up with paint
and varnish, brass aglow
part of prairie nautical museum.
From her bow, nothing to be seen
but treetops, waves of grass;
sturdy paddle wheeler
that once plied past our Red River home
where four ragamuffins, imagining
staterooms of titanic size, crystal chandeliers
waved to passengers who weathered
cramped cabins, wooden bunks
a salon in which you’d be
hard put to swing a ship’s cat.
She carried the staples of life: bolts
of cloth, threads of communication
to places like Sans Souci, Ponemah, Gimli
Manigotagan, Berens River, Norway House, buffeted
by curling whitecaps, beating
into jaws of inland sea.
from Pattern of Genes, published by Frontenac House
Copyright © 2001 by Rosalee van Stelten
Rosalee van Stelten’s latest book is Pavlov’s Elephant published by frontenachouse.com. “The Three Sisters,” a concert piece for wind band and narrator, inspired by her poem of the same name and composed by Dr. Kelly-Marie Murphy, received its world premier at the 2009 Calgary International Band Festival.
I lived on the banks of the Red River as a child, too, and was enthralled with the crisply white and gigantic childhood perception of the SS Keenora as it glided majestically toward its destinations. We waved, we shouted, we jumped for joy from the banks of the mighty Red, and imagined kings and princesses dining royally on Ritz biscuits and real cheddar cheese!
My thanks to Rosalee van Stelten for bringing this all but forgotten memory back to me.