Spider Lilies

Canoeing the Edisto

Slipped like a turtle off a log

and skimmed down the Edisto--

water like coffee,

churning just a bit muddy--

maidenflies and dragonflies

the only other traffic--

breathing air threshed

through the river reeds,

fresher than the city breeze.

I laugh aloud

at silvery fish

darting skyward

and diving as neatly

as a pocketknife collapses

upon itself.

Wood ducks scare from the reeds

at paddles' splash,

a flash in the blue sky,

heedless flight;

they squawk like giggling girls

reeling in some silly fright.

Left behind among the arum

and lavender pickerelweed,

white spider lilies gleam

like pristine snowflakes at the river's edge.

For just a while

I dally through rice canals,

aged trunks* a silent reminder

that once a lively trade

was plied here.

Again upon the river main,

flushed with exertion

against a sudden headwind,

I seek shelter beneath two towering trees--

the cypress,

draped in Spanish moss like tinsel,

branches swaying in the wind.

I wish I too could rise like the cypress,

high above the river,

and call to the herons and egrets

and owls.

Too soon I have come full circle;

the beachhead is busy, peopled.

I'm tempted to glide past,

to return to the solitary quiet of the river.

But the Edisto will stay with me,

filed with memories of other rivers,

and mountains, and meadows

which I will cull

whenever life becomes

too real, too fast, or too crowded.

klsmith