Throwing a stick in the Boulder River

Throwing a stick in the Boulder River

         for Avery

You have to have this experience
of water tumbling to the ocean
to know what I mean.

You have to see Avery
throw a stick in the stream.

It may reach the Dakotas,
caught by a rock,
to be fetched by a dog,
thrown back in from a dock,
to float as far as Saint Joseph,
to sink waterlogged.

Still,
the waters flow on.

And here
among boulders,
mere miles from Wyoming,
it always flows on

with rumbles of spray
through parched pine,
past timber thirsting for showers
in this season of flames.

It's not the same,
to see it on postcards
that can't speak,
to paint it with words
without scent.

There is the pine.
There is the water.
There is Avery,
glistening in sunshine,
throwing a stick.

© 2008 Kåre Enga [165.200] 2008-08-16

Well, Avery broke a stick and threw it in the water. So, I wrote about it! Shared it with him tonight. The Boulder River starts south of Big Timber, MT and flows into the Yellowstone and then the Missouri River.