Come broken as you are to the river
like your last little girl has finally gone.
The big water may never heal you
but it won't make you worse: Julia Belle Swain
rides heavy in that broad muddy water
out of LaCrosse. You can feel summer's end
near Brownsville, Minnesota -- a long town
dedicated only to the river.
Locusts saw. Steam rises from backwaters.
The blue heron wheels above a slough
you could give a name to if you cared.
Dead Man. Hangman. Black Sand. Last Desire Slough.
See? What comes of this is only motion,
distance, fog, steam, heat, waves and cries from land
perhaps for you.
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