Classic Poem

Back to you, Shaugamauk, my heart is turning!
Your shallow rapids call to me through the dusk.
I sniff the acrid sweet of your brush-fires burning.
I breathe your dew-drenched tamaracks' poignant musk.

I see once more your thin young moon appearing
Through the black branches, pale, remote, apart.
From the lone cabin on the hillside clearing
A dog's bark echoes faintly through my heart.

I pass. But I commit to your long keeping
Some part of me that passes not. I know
My words, my songs, my memories unsleeping
Will mingle unforgotten in your flow.

Waters of Shaugamauk, when your dusk is falling
My dust will stir, hearing your shallows calling.