A day on the river

We spent a day on the river. It was changing faster in those days, finding broad new meanders that took us back almost to where we started, cutting through its own banks so that we never saw places we expected to. It was hardly worth planning the trip: you might end up anywhere. And besides, we thought: why must we draw maps with the land still and the river turning, and not a straight blue line with the land twisting around it?