I saw you standing on the icy edge
your toes dipped in the water
watching fish go by
with one holy eye
and Wood Ducks with the other-
I stopped and lingered for awhile,
watched ducks play all around you
yet never did you bat an eye
but stayed the way I found you -
And I would have stayed forevermore
believe me,
if I could,
become the River
the rocky shore,
a tree among the wood -
Your knees they bent
your feathers twitched
you looked me in the eye,
One of us must leave
You said,
Tis either you or I -
I knew the answer
to that riddle
I pedaled off alone,
The River, to me,
is a place to go
for You it is a home -
I rode back to the City,
watched men building ever higher
ordered my coffee
and my beer
to tame the need inside me -
I sit outside to feel the cold
to think about the weather,
I miss the sky and
the mountain view
far off in the distance,
the Willow Tree at the waterpark
came down with no resistance
(and what about the other one
on the other side of the bridge?
They cut it down, it was in the way
and getting much too big) -
I step inside amongst the books
and all the thoughts inside them,
such a convenient place to hide
from a world all but forgotten -
Yet all the while I sit and think,
You’re down there at the water,
hunting fish as you’ve always done,
as will your sons and daughters.
Heron watercolor by Beth Lighthouse
Tales from th' Trails 