River Magic

Birthed of mystery

Embellished with streams and creeks and falls

I am stones- shiny smooth or

Velvet with moss

Branches overreaching

I am rushing wind and

Soft sultry dusk

I am water ouzel play-working

Wing-flap swimming

At times bright and brazen

The echoing screech of fish eagle

By season, I am somber

Then bursting

Pulsing then

Ablaze with startling scandalous scarlet and

Luminous gold

I am naked and not ashamed

All ripples then glassy sheen

Or dark and secretive

Sheltering fish from hook and line

I am rapids of whipping cream and

Ocean’s deafening swell

Yet also deep doldrums

At times unknowable

But brash and furious

I am constant

Changeless and

Born anew each instant

I speak in these many voices

Biding silence is not for this moment

by