Twin Falls, Snoqualmie River, WA
alongside the Snoqualmie River’s South Fork
the tall and lumbering Taiwanese student
towering over the thin and lanky American teen
the energetic dog pulling the 50-something suitor up the trail
and me
the other 50-something
tracking literary allusions
stopping for expansive breaths
murmuring metta blessings
closing my eyes to receive autumn’s first sunlight
watching a solitary maple leaf
spiral a lazy descent
down the 186 foot drop
the white crashing roar receding to backdrop
the protagonist shifting from the intense energy of the falls
to the delicate wisp of yellow
and the unseen wind currents
Death’s delight in last moments
where freedom and lightness
make all else seem like backstory.
On my father’s last day
released from dialysis
set free from intrusive treatments
he too yellowed
spiraled unhurriedly
on currents of relief and forgiveness
eyes closed to receive the bright January sun
and died before my flight landed
my scramble to reach him
the backstory to his dénouement.
The cascading pounding frothy Falls
returned to prominence
surging and pressing onward
long after the leaf had gone under
buried within the river below.
I too continue
pound and froth
surge and subsume
unable to discern that which was once on the shore
from that which flows within
carrying aloft colorful debris of love and life
that rest briefly on my surface.