Delaware Dreams

DELAWARE DREAMS and VISIONS

Awash in murk you often lie,
After the storms and gails of life...

Wearing your mud like a well-earned garment of esteem.
It is then that I feel my sorrows more deeply.
I somberly watch your funerary procession;
while your splashing sepia currents churn in grief.

Oh Delaware, liquid beacon for those favoring a watered muse.
You have "good days" and "bad days", like any other woman.
Sometimes your makeup is harsh; and your eyes unclear.
Often, you are bare and freshly scrubbed, remarkably clean.

It is then that I am drawn to look into your eyes,
seeing the stones lying on the bottom of your bed,
as tea leaves in a cup of a would-be seer.
But unlike them, truth abounds in you without fail.

You call to my soul, and tell your earth stories,
of times long ago and times to come.
The future is always present now in foretelling shadows;
And so it is with you, as you weave yet un-seen events.
The Ecclesiastical verses pertaining to time and season;
pervade and encompass the very flow of you.

Why do I feel this watery sisterhood and so connected;
Closer to me then to my own kin in times of despair or joy?
You bend a listening ear as easily and with such grace;
Just as you bend the riverbeds with great patience and strength.

Like a true friend, I can leave and return after many days.
Yet I feel as if I never departed; for we are still intimate with each other.
Bending to touch your surface that appears hot like furnaced silver;
Your coolness calms the heated fury of decisions that must be made.
"All in good time.", You say, "All in good time."

Leaves fall from deciduous visitors in autumnal beauty to your waters.
The Earth itself is bidding you goodbye, as part of itself dies yet again.

But not today. Today you shone like a Daphneous war goddess.
Your armour reflected the clouds and heavens above.
Today I was hopeful also with the same hopes you poured so charitably.

Tonight, at this moment, my hopes come in flashes off your mercurial surface.
Entering my mind, You loose my dry and weary destinies;
with your consistent, steady, and yet polite prodding.
You encourage me to flow also, courageously and without care.

Oh Delaware, will you ever keep and muse on the things of me?
No, it would pollute your eternal flow and power of impartiality.
Never the less, we are dearest friends and sister spirits.

by Kimarie Manhart-Freeman