for David on his birthday*

Above the noise and rush
of water in the gorge
this still pool
holds an expectation
of its river’s descent
down limestone-speckled
stone down-tumbling
to fill dark narrow space
with a commentary of turbulence

. . . and all the while
the arc of September’s sun
spotlights fern and stone
green grey pale-power white
water a mineral-brown
reflections everywhere:
our hard shadows sharp
against the sedimentary rock
skeletal fragments of life
from an oceanic past