The Neponset

- cuts a winding riverbed
with bits of self
cast aside as oxbows -
ways tried
and abandoned
along water’s
inevitable path
of least resistance -

- Earth has always possessed
the same amount of water
No more
No less -

- meandering through
suburbs, playgrounds,
a narrow reservation
resurrected from a “Superfund” site -

- Where once munitions
were manufactured
now a narrow band of trees
shade the little channel
home to deer, woodchucks, fox,
rabbits and an array of birds -

Nestle and other corporations
are buying major sources
worldwide -  

near the train station
a meadow is flooded
now and then
its colors changing
with the plant species
that thrive in this years’
ebb and flow -

glaciers that held
the water supply for
billions are disappearing.  
Where
will they go?

along Foul Meadow
Wildlife Sanctuary
where red winged
blackbirds stake
out little kingdoms -

air, food, shelter
and -

and snaking
in curved, curbed
channels
through Hyde Park,
Dedham, Milton,
finally dividing
Dorchester from Wollaston as
the Neponset estuary
in its easy going fashion
attaining a flexible
oneness
with the sea …

-- Tom Rubenoff