At The River by Brian Rihlmann

at the river

my fallen cottonwood

sits in the same place as always 

stuck in the sand

like an old grey bone

it’s surely deteriorated a bit

since last summer 

but I can’t see it

like I can feel my own

I wonder how long

it’ll last here

until every trace is gone

or if another 

will ever choose this spot

for their very own

to sit here staring 

at ripples of sunlight

flowing downstream 

to pace the riverbank 

listening to the water ramble on 

like a drunkard 

to skip flat stones

hoping to reach

that far shore

to scribble in a notebook 

purging themselves 

in this open-sky confessional 

secrets black on the page

until the ink runs dry

---

Brian Rihlmann lives in Reno, Nevada. His work has appeared in many magazines, including Chiron Review, The Main Street Rag, The American Journal Of Poetry, and New York Quarterly. He has authored three collections of poetry, most recently “A Screaming Place,” (2021) by Cajun Mutt Press.