Creek

by Jill Sell

water striders skated across Tinkers Creek
fish swam around the bend
fresh water mussels anchored at bottom

Tinkers Creek was my science lab
my water park
my sanctuary

after school and in the summer
my mother knew where to find me --
on the creek bank or in waist high water
swimming with minnows
as sunlight turned the surface
into a sparkling diamond field

the water, clear
the bottom, mud clean

my childhood flowed
as rapidly as the creek
after a rainstorm

one day, cooling myself in the creek
I saw a meandering “S”
just break the top of the water
and a northern water snake
two feet long
swam past within inches of me

too old for childish curiosity
but too young to have studied herpetology
I hurried to the bank, afraid

I never again stepped foot into Tinkers Creek
but I have stared into its mysteries
many times since

I know now it wasn’t the snake
that should have frightened me
it was the factories
illegal dumping, toxic runoff
and developers who laughed
at riparian rules
and maimed a natural waterway
which should have terrified me
-------
Email poetry submissions to Michael Ceraolo at ceraolom@yahoo.com.