I Will Stay

The gully leads the land to the water table

For the water’s sake as a young man

Would lay his coat in mud for the queen

The branch flows all summer gathering

Grasses and birches skirts all billowing

Because the pastures kindly tilt this way

This farm’s eight acres inclined to the sea

Sending water down and down even after

The trees have lifted so much to the sky

All last year I built sacred fires in caves

As high as I could find but in this watershed

The fire circle goes down behind the branch

And I still don’t know how it is I got here

Or why water behaves this particular way

But some love has roped me, and I will stay.

© Bill Prindle, 2018

Sprout Creek
Photo by Julian Colton
from Wikimedia Commons