Remembering the River Woman

by Bruce Boston and Marge Simon

i.

Simple things. A few hours in a man's life.
The rare pleasure of finding someone so
close that for a time she filled his skin.

When a man is afraid of himself, everyone
knows he's bad company. He was a big man,
tall enough, and his shoulders could stand

two bushels of grain. By day he worked the
docks of a river so vast you could tell time
by its tides. He lived alone in a tin-roofed

shack near the pier, avoided rum, spoke only
when he had to. Rumor had it he'd once shamed
his family. No one could remember how or why.

ii.

When the tide rises, crafts from many lands
come ashore. One day there was a River Woman
among the passengers, dark and slim with smooth

long hair that flowed with colors in the wind.
When he first saw her he forgot to breathe for
a minute, and when he did he yelled, a huge

wordless yell, the sound that comes from deep
inside a needful man. When she heard him cry,
she stopped and turned his way. One by one

and then in groups, the people on the docks
gaped when the creature took his hand to walk
beside him. River Folk never mixed with humans.

iii.

She nestled in his largest chair while he fixed
a meal of bread and cheese. They washed it down
with a local vintage, laughed often and for no

reason. She told stories he barely understood.
He poured more wine, brushing her arm whenever
he could. Yet there came a time when somehow

she sensed the fear within him like a bright
lance of pain. Was it something in his glance,
his touch, or could the River Folk share the

thoughts of others as the old tales told?
And though she stayed to spend the night,
he understood that he'd lost her already.

iv.    

After, he had to think it out slowly, the way
she had come to him and why. Especially why.

A fantasy that took hours to relive, every
gesture she made, each word spoken, her

webbed fingers splayed on the soiled spread,
and how she had taken his fear in her leaving.

He thought about it all in moments of peace as
he watched the tides of the river rise and fall.