Watershed

Watershed

I rode the rapids of the Iguazú

and flew above the falls at Devil’s Throat.

I sailed the Beagle Channel on a boat

that nearly capsized as it ran into

a thrashing squall. I paddled on the Plate,

the Jaguarão, the Corcovado; swam

the Paraná and didn’t give a damn

about piranhas or the spotback skate.

Those were the waters of the wild in me.

Now time has tamed the tenor of my dream

and I am drawn back to the source, the stream

I disregarded as an absentee—

the Susquehanna, ancient, faithful, strong.

The river that had borne me, all along.

 
(by Catherine Chandler, first published in The Literary Bohemian, Issue 22, April 2015)