Summer Creek

Silt settles in the summer creek
over hard-wedged wood
and largish stubborn stones
laid bright and bare
since vernal torrents
ripped raw the bed,
tore out old banks
and little bridges loosed
rode wild on white-water
shattered against rock after rock…

The sun is warm now glimmering
over the water where leafy branches
gaze and tease the eye
where the pebbles colorful and striped
and many shades of grey
rest nestled in the silt
that settles ’round but does not
obscure them from the sun
and satin ripples whisper
as they dance together–sunlight,
pebbles and clear-running stream.

I sit now by the summer creek
relieved that wild season’s passed,
soaking in the sunlight at my back,
and realizing, knowing
Springtime
full of itself and its own nature
meant no harm.

_{July 2011 CL Redding
revisions 2024}