Like teabags poised
| 1 |
over the roiling water,
| 2 |
we dangled, by turns,
| 3 |
from a rope.
| 4 |
Pushed off the roof
| 5 |
of the boat,
| 6 |
swung out and dropped
| 7 |
into the muddy mug
| 8 |
of the Mississippi
| 9 |
only to emerge
| 10 |
laughing
| 11 |
surprised
| 12 |
at having survived
| 13 |
the fall.
| 14 |
| |
Little mud mustaches
| 15 |
etched the sepia
| 16 |
memories of
| 17 |
that river
| 18 |
that day
| 19 |
that summer
| 20 |
that childhood
| 21 |
into our skin.
| 22 |
| |
Now the sandbars
| 23 |
whose soft embrace
| 24 |
showed us the way
| 25 |
rarely surface --
| 26 |
the channel and our veins
| 27 |
silted
| 28 |
with the detritus
| 29 |
of forty years.
| 30 |
| |
We have reunions,
| 31 |
make note
| 32 |
of those not there.
| 33 |
Search name tags
| 34 |
for faces
| 35 |
we no longer
| 36 |
recognize.
| 37 |
| |
| |
We bury
| 38 |
parents
| 39 |
friends
| 40 |
and fears
| 41 |
of the undertow
| 42 |
as the bank sloughs
| 43 |
each spring
| 44 |
rechannels
| 45 |
our expectations
| 46 |
and we emerge
| 47 |
laughing
| 48 |
surprised
| 49 |
at having survived
| 50 |
at all.
| 51 |
|
