Flumes Vol. 4: Issue 1, Summer 2019 | Page 58

River Marriage Poem

By Carolyn M. Crane

Where the river water

marries the river bank

in mutual discovery

is where a few days ago

I saw you pondering

the merging point

I’ve come to know the way you think.

How the thoughts manifest in your body

with less than a gesture

more than an impulse.

You looked up then and saw me

and then, I think, I knew.

It was more than the crescent moon’s

promise of fullness as it shined upon the

pool just upstream from where we stood

--more than the trout breaking the glassy water top

with tiny sounds that added to the silence of the night.

You pulled me to you then with one arm

and then, I think, we both knew

we wanted that promise that is like this river:

changing and evolving in ways

impossible to predict or understand

but intended to perplex, to mystify

to guarantee mutual discovery

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