the serial story of the creek

 

change and the creek

change throws itself at the world,

excessive rain pummels the mountain and valley,

raises the creek,

empowers it to reshape the flows,

the mountain stream shifts toward what was secondary before,

now just above our cabin,

much more water flows in what was a minor branch,

rather than in the formerly main branch,

the creek decides it is easier to flow

down a different channel,

constancy is not how streams manifest

unless we define constancy as change,

great trunks of hemlock 

slowly make their way downstream in the high water,

each felled by a voracious insect, an adelgid,

that hurries along their meeting their maker,

these logs change the stream bed

and have their own stories to tell,

it is exciting to anticipate

the next editions of the serial stories

that are all around us.

by Henry H. Walker

August 22, ‘26