Eisbach

Be happy. Cause no harm. Fall in love.
—typewritten memo pinned to a front door in Maxvorstadt

Even in this landlocked city, where bullet-marks not yet a century old pit the walls of university buildings—far, / far from the blue shores on postcards pinned up in your flat near the Pinakothek, far from those slow rollers—yes, even here / you’ll find a cold bore running beneath the ring road along which trams are even now shuddering, yes: a wave / surges from under the bridge, and another, the water will never stop flowing, flows / full as thunder through the same low arches, curve and lull / washing over the same shallow rocks, always the same rocks / never the same wave. The surfboard pearls under a crest and the student seems to walk / on water, crouching and twisting her neoprene torso—listening to instinct, not turning tricks. / The trick is stay on the deck, by not trying to stay on the deck / to stay with the wave by making the stance stronger,adjusting an inch instead of resisting, on / and on, carving from one bank to another and it is / impossible to tell whether surfer follows board or / board wave, or wave surfer, and whether a surfer / creates the spray or chases it / as white petals fall from the shadows / over the river. Until the tumble / a wipeout in green swell and summer thunder / distant as gunfire. The water / whirls away. Fall bravely. Be happy. //