Marla Deschenes and Lene Gary

Lene Gary

Inspiration

River’s Edge

by Marla Deschenes

Response

Chase me down to the river
Through the changing trees
Where we hid the saddest fishing boat
The oars standing at attention camouflaged as the mighty pines
Our giggling bringing back memories of a lighter younger time.

They used to work here
Panning for gold
Casting out their lines for fish
But these shores know only garbage now
Abandoned automatons of epic proportions
Now nothing more than squirrel homes and bird sanctuaries

Come with me down to the river
Stepping lightly on the shore
And sit so gently in the fishing boat
Hold the oars above the water line as I push the bow gently across the sand
And jump with childish glee into the empty seat.

The jobs went first to Florida
Then Mexico and India
And places never heard of around here.
The river holds the secrets and the salty tears
The bodies of the workers who chose to walk into the deep
Until they were one with the waters  sliding past.

Stay with me down at the river
Drifting across the moving water
Lilting as the sun catches the blond in your hair
Once last journey downstream
Before winter’s cold hides the secrets the river keeps
In the ice frozen to the bottom of our boat nestled beneath bare trees.

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