remains of busted beer bottles and cracked plastic jut from stinking tide-water mud eyes narrow against sand saturated sustained winds grain sting and cling before slinging past sleeping man scorched cedar red sloth snores against driftwood his dog pants patiently pawing sand playfully once roaring giant beside me sulks now
those ******* dams
superb river I formally apologize for us we the new humans injected our cement turbine barriers into you so we can read bibles and bake brownies after dark so streetlights can work grave shifts convinced they’re delivering us from evil I imagine how you used to roar carve tear from your northern mountainous sources converting wastelands to pastures and fertile gardens feeding the starved cleaning the rugged assisting the ambitious the old ones learned to cooperate with you
we massacred most of them and now control you
so anyways I’m here now watching an old man fight bitter wind his old sailboat approximately ten thousand times his size I’ve seen men tack but this is different powerful winds continue to whip westward he heaves his body left and boat groans cooperating pulling hard right harder right harder right sail’s about forty five degrees off water now and I think he’s gotta be gravebound see now the ol’ skipper has gone and dove right again and the sail shakes snapping against gales but succeeds to the left his boat follows and keeps inching upwind inch by inch in the back of his mind he considers retreat but knows the more golden shores lay ahead
behind him are bruising bridges and barges and big trucks accelerating in left lanes beeping and blinking in blistering sun there is a ******* on jantzen beach that is supposed to have great bbq wings heard theyre to die for and great women with giant fake personalities theyre hired for their personalities theyre encouraged to show their personalities and put them on display so all the heavy men can enjoy their stay
my prized old man battles eastward upstream upwind to your golden shores hes gone another thousand yards in the last hour each cut strenuous muscles battle ropes sail each cut seems dangerously intense and immaculate below him solemn oppressed river travels reluctantly towards ocean
I lay back in gray-black sand and close my eyes sand particles whipping the right side of my face I think of what is next in my day writing some ****** spoken word reading some weathered whitman and wordsworth watching some girl drink herself dumb all the while hearing the sails and old man struggling redskinned man snoring dog digging my eyelids look red with sun shining thru them
Walking to the river now each step deeper down ***** freezing my ankle knee thigh dark brown-blue water continues to rise around as I sink down when shoulder high I dive down to bottom and kick lungs fully expanded begin to grow stale and I surface I notice I have been pulled down river ten yards eleven yards for a while I float kicking eastward but the river wears on me I exhale fully sinking down
Alien world of thick green surrounds me ive forgotten the meaning of breath time life ten feet eleven feet below shimmering surface rises pressure presses ears persistently each foot deeper water colder whines of far off jetboat jetski engines and muffled airplanes pollute I picture how I must look to unsuspecting fish naked boy eyes open cheeks inflated arms suspended above below weeds dance and baitfish prance something about scene is other-worldly
lungs crave air so I kick back up far from shore and from shirt people look at me like I’m reduced to a floating head I swim back to shore concerned red man approaches me his dog licks my hand and its paws scratch my stomach
i guess he thought i was drowning i think i am too
