Halfway to Noah means that the boards he is using are working and the garden is getting its water and the moss and mold starting to build on the underside of the ark, the places where he began and what the ship has grown from, is becoming a deep and moveable root. Noah sees more birds today and knows that they know that halfway is closer to floating than any broken open roof or half moon that they will otherwise find. This is a flood and the deer pastured behind Noah’s working arms are waiting. They have felt the rain and the jarring of the earth when mechanized earthquakes shook each city to its bottom drawers. They know that this ark and Noah are the way to find new land, are the way to lift their hooves until the water has receded.
Halfway to Noah means that he needs to put more boards with more nails and that roaming the busted-down streets and near where the bodies used to be before they were lifted up and carried by the water is where he cannot go anymore. The water is ankle deep today, the water is knee deep today, the water is waist deep today. Where Noah is building the ark is the driest place in all the places he has been. Before Noah began to build he walked as far as could in every direction and at each tired post of horizon there was only water and the tips of buildings sucked under or brought down or crushed. Noah crushes nails with a hammer. Noah moves his arms so that the muscles flex and a board goes on a board goes on a board.
Halfway to Noah means that there will be a sometime that is not now when all the animals stacked in his shoulder blades will board this vessel and become to him a family. He will call one sister and one brother and one mom and one dad. He will eat with them from the garden that is growing already and he will stroke their fur and say nice and chaotic things to them as the water comes up and up and they float. He will go crazy somewhere out at sea with no land for months and won’t know what to think or what shape to make of his mouth when a bird finally leaves the deck and does not return, or returns with a branch in its mouth, a sign of what living used to mean.
