My body slides the long snake road, in halting rain fueled starts
toward the river's birth-place into Something Else, the estuary.
We knocked our boats onto the golden sand of sideways jungles;
the river glowing at our backs, the sunlight blessed you: airy
strands of halo, released by breeze to meet the muddy hands
that nosed the kayaks onto shore and lashed them, lest you worry
all night about their freedom. Free myself, I left our tent in starlight
to hear the water's voice. A promise. I told myself I could not rest. You wary
fool. You did not guess the love that flooded me, the currents' stroke
that bade me join, my molecules dissolved in joy to feed the bestiary.