From "The Creekside Tales"

 From The Creekside Tales

      --for Jim Hanlen

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right

       --Robert Frost

Zooming Chugach Range

Google Maps can’t locate

my friend Creek. Paramedics,

firemen, his old school principal

turn up nothing

but off-placed priests

hiding under moss-covered

succulent stones. Considering

themselves safe, but embarrassed,

underwater fingers thrill

before pubis-rich wonder.

Creek sees it all. Even

among the horrific here,

and off-balance, hand-cuffing

collared hands, himself unseen,

swift-moving Creek,

in great danger,

my friend, delivers oxygen

to oppressed beauty.

None of this will be told

because none of it is seen.

Commotion, and commotion’s

memory seats itself.

What happened told wrong.

Creek yields word to water.

Jim Bodeen

2 June 2021