A Shallow River

Photo by Daniil Silantev on Unsplash

A shallow river rushes
Wide enough
That a four-horse carriage
Might have forded it
Passengers clinging to
The sides
Knuckles white
Even though
The trot of horses
Sloshed only inches deep
But the rocks so large
Smooth as paving stones
Clipped the wheels in turn
And threatened to spill
Them out
Into the damp summer air
Screaming with cicadas
Thrown down wet at the mercy of
Poplar trees
In the shadows of the mountains
Cinched tight
Belting one side
Of the world
To the other
Deep in the woods
Of the Carolinas
As they crossed ahead
To climb up
Cold, thin mountain air
And shudder their way
Along.

A shallow river rushes
Skirting past
The slender reaches
Of thirsty trees
A crumbling stone bridge
Wide enough
For a four-horse carriage
Falling deep inside
By a rotting shed
Of swollen planks
Dark and dotted
With brown
Somewhere off a road
Where the paving crumbles
To nothing
Where people poke out heads
From their porch-door houses
And let the hinges creak
Closed again
Once more.