A long drive, then we stopped
at a small deserted beach
of the great Mississippi,
just as the Doobies’ cassette
clicked on. You opened your door
and nearly sank
into the deep soft sand.
at a small deserted beach
of the great Mississippi,
just as the Doobies’ cassette
clicked on. You opened your door
and nearly sank
into the deep soft sand.
Using crutch and cane,
and a bit of leaning on me,
you made it to the trees.
Alone by the edge, we breathed
the dark, crude, riparian scent
of spicy, juicy, underworld-green,
and searched the bowling-ball sky
for the very first star.
We hauled that weightless night,
the thrill of our trip,
back across the continent
under rainbows lost to sight
as we turned around.
Still, we kept on shining.
In no hurry at all.
Carol L. Deering has twice received the Wyoming Arts Council Poetry Fellowship (2016, judge Rebecca Foust; 1999, judge Agha Shahid Ali). She was also selected for a writing residency at Devils Tower and years ago in Washington State had the privilege of interviewing Richard Hugo. Her first book, Havoc & Solace: Poems from the Inland West, published by Sastrugi Press in fall 2018, can be purchased online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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