Sabbath Evening by the River
by Vernie Lynn DeMille
The crash of rapids
Entwine around
The stillness of my perch,
An arbitrary
Seating choice
Beneath a new-fledged birch.
My son attempts
To change the course
With pebbles he casts in;
They’re swept along
Unheeded by
The frothy, clamoring din.
Jupiter beckons
In the East
Amethyst fills the air.
A thousand fires
Of lives long past
Burn in the darkness there.
I cannot hear
The passing cars
Their lights disappear in the trees.
The fragrance of pine
And juniper boughs
Skip past me on the breeze.
A chill descends
Upon me
The water runs cold and deep,
Never twice
The same it rushes
Past my unshod feet.
It rambles and
Shakes the roots
Of every outcropping of tree,
And I find
The rushing draught has put
The stillness back in me.
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