12/26/08

After the meal
we took a walk
myself
and she
who had lived a maybe
less than sober and
less than always
for someone else
kind of life though
all that
was mostly
long ago
and still
we came
to the place
where the river
met with the ocean
just at sunset it was
so cold
and windy she looked
at the river thick
and viscous
with ice and salty slush and so
oddly calm
for such a
mighty confluence

I thought
this was where
its so dangerous
she said
I thought
this was where
so many people
drowned

I understood her puzzlement
and struggled to explain it
I said
you can't see it
its underneath
all the forces
and the currents
undertow
and riptides
and of course
its so cold
She paused
then said
softly
and not to me
Yes
that is something
I understand.