5.23.2023 - Still Water

5.23.2023
Still Water

Around the bend of every river, -
There is a silent glen, -
Where the children often gather, -
In a summer without end. -
The pool is calm and inviting, -
The water never stirred, -
Toes dipped in indirect lighting, -
Lips quiver without a word. -
He stepped from the river bank, -
Wading into the clear flow, -
Eyes reflecting nothing and blank, -
He had nowhere to go. -
He could have moved his arms away -
The boy knew how to swim, -
Yet he sank like the sun at the end of day, -
And the world lost sight of him. -
Days passed, hands reached, prays churned, -
But there was no sign or clue, -
His mother’s empty hands burned, -
Her world twisted out of true. -
He walked into the shadows, -
And sank into the quiet, -
The glass motionless in the meadows, -
His passage away nonviolent. -
Face unmoving skin like ash, -
Son following daughter, -
Without a ripple or a splash, -
Lost to the still water.