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Confluence
Two separate episodes of life
swirling downstream to where the waters converge
pause one more time in some quiet pool
to survey the rapids and the waterfalls ahead
before rushing onward to the sea
Dressed in their oldest and most comfortable clothes
life-jacketed and sculling away in kayak
they laugh like children when the fragile craft
spins out of paddle then rights itself again
crying to each other in one voice, look at
that fish jump, did you see that bird,
its azure feathers, its orange beak
Under the brambles of a raspberry bush
that has spread its prickly wonder out over
some tranquil bend, they taste the perfect fruit
all berry fingered and purple with joy
and kiss a shared sweet berry kiss, and if you
pass them by and spy only one of them in this tiny craft
you’ll understand that somehow they have combined
To drift downstream past bends and rapids
down to wider waters where one day, in some remembered
rock pool on some undiscovered shore
they’ll separate again and watch the salmon
beating upstream towards the spawning ground
© Johnmichael Simon
2007
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