Confluence of the North and East Forks of the Lewis River
Two Forks Wildlife Area, Washington
1. Where are your headwaters?
On the western slope of a fiery throat.
2. Where do you end?
There is no end, there is only flow.
3. How do you flow?
Upriver, dammed—
but here, at last, the full body of myself.
4. Who swims in your waters?
Salmon and salmon peoples.
5. Who else swims in your waters?
Lamprey and longfin, mussel and midge,
mother and daughter, father and son.
6. Where is your voice?
Beneath propeller and keel, my chorus is strong—
the powerboats have not always muffled my song.
7. Who sings from your shore?
Have you heard the belted kingfisher’s morning trill?
The song sparrow’s lyric in the evening still?
The treep and click of the dipper seeking her fill?
8. How do you rage?
In the storm’s sweet fury, or
patiently, for all bridges and levees eventually fail.
9. What have you learned?
Flow is the highest form of being.
10. And what have you learned?
We all are part of the savaged sea.
Simmons Buntin is the founder and editor-in-chief of Terrain.org, and author of “Satellite: Essays on Fatherhood” and “Home, Near and Far.”