Jeff and the Mississippi

Most people think
that rivers
are only water
 
But most people
don’t know
what you knew
 
That a river
is a virile body
just like yours
 
With just as many secrets
 
To learn that
they would have to
do what you did
 
They would have to
have been there
on that night
 
To sink into
your mud-filled boots
black and caked
 
To allow
your fish-fed t-shirt
to spill over their chests
 
To lie back
into the endlessness
like lured lovers
 
And to sing like you
 
An air that
nature remembers
and vows to reclaim
 
Pouring itself
down their throats
in a show of jurisdiction
 
Most people
don’t know
nature’s price for wisdom