Of Songs and Silt

Hello good writers! I am just starting to come down off my first "river high" and hope you all are adjusting back to normal life fairly well. The songs of the river still ring in my head, and I hope they will not fade anytime soon.

I'm starting off the sharing with a sestina I wrote during the trip, which proved to be more enjoyable than challenging. I hope you enjoy it, and please don't be shy to share as well.
                                                                                                                                 -Alex A.

Long After

Like smooth syrup we float

Down Chitina’s glinting face.

Underneath our raft slides heavy silt

Remnant of glacier shadow

Rocks for rattles, she hisses like snakes

While into porphyry rock she carves.

Sun kissed skin, matted hair, in waves we carve

Oars for chisels, our work fades as we float

Our paper legacy lost in the thin grey snake.

Head on into boils we face

The waves, and shiver in clouds’ shadow

All this to run our fingers through glacial silt.

Next morn, cowboy coffee is thick as silt

In camp where rivers’ confluence carves

A land of fleeting shadows.

Upon the breeze the hornet floats

Thin-skinned creatures flee his face

His bite as fierce as any snake.

Afternoon, down slanted bluffs gullies snake

Give the river an offering of silt.

Ash trees write on hillside face

With callous mining roots they carve.

Only the dead break loose and float

To drift beyond Fireweed’s shadow.

Long before seeing jetliner’s shadow

Where tar and gravel rivers snake

Years ago copper would float

On iron beasts that spewed black silt.

In granite heavy tracks would carve

But then decay on canyon’s face.

Long after midnight sun forgets my face

One day when sinks my shadow

Into earth where rivers carve

Sun still will shine on the golden snake

Who carries down her silver silt.

In Chitina, my own silt will float.