Photo:Poem - Urban Stream

Photo by Vicki Westberg

Urban Stream

Combed by coho, groomed by grass

   her language is microsong

       high-pitched and fast.

     She teases the doodlebug, dragonfly, sticks.

   She flashes, splashes, sprays and spits.

       She jumps and bumps, dappled and dimpled,

           flirting, squirting, gurgling dribbles.

            Nibbling ripples of bubbles appear,

       as well as regular floods of tears.

Coyotes kiss this hide-n-seek creek

       and possums cross her

while you and I sleep.

       Sunbeams explode and moonbeams meander

directing airborne creatures to land there.

         Her earth hard host cradles the flow

     and leaves gifts of gravel

        above and below.

  At the end of her baptismal slide

       she climbs the rain cloud

for another ride.

Vicki Westberg  2011