downriver

Thanks to the creek at Big Tesuque


when wind first woke me with a whisper
time to leave the mountain shoulder
brave the boulder currents
join the ride downriver

I was unready to release my hold
small but anchored to a homeground
where I hoped to thrive not trade
connection for detachment
or a place for motion

yet she sighed me roots and all
screeing off my steep glissade
tumbling sliding sidling over
spring-fed mountainsiding fall
joining water's season

drawn reluctant from the verge
to spin and spiral and submerge
surge, resurface, pooling
spilling over each obstructing edge
again be running rapid

others find the current
skimming perfect likeness of the sky-map
still reflecting on the depths
leaf-mold algae lichen
sunparched needles aspen parchments
silt and sifted grains of granite settle
gaining ground one granule at a time
gypsy seeds alight where earth assembles
germinate convivial pauses where at last to
hold our ground where only water flowed before
now something starts to grow

you
catch on too as you scrape by
gliding homeward on the run
going with the flow
stick with me if I'm stuck here
drop what burdens we were ferrying
mid-watershed seed exchanges
decayed debris lodged with us
flotsam converts to fertile home
in drifts chinampas islands
and finally new shoreline
we recast the riffle then the current
then we rift the water
shift the stream by aggregating
far downriver from our origin
the offering of invisible mountains
where we first released into the flow