It warmed up a bit here
the ice on The River started breaking up
and moving toward Erie
The flow dammed up
At the bend in Side Cut Park
Slabs the length and weight of cars
stacked onto each other and
spilled the banks
The River took the road and
touched ground it hadn’t held
in over 50 years
So say the
elders
The ice followed
The River
The dam broke away
and The River returned to its banks
leaving giant platforms of ice
scattered brutally across the park
there is a cemetery by the river
Est. 1889
Has wrought iron gates
that they keep the
rust off of
The River moved all the tombstones
and the gates into battered piles
at the feet of barkless trees
a few hundred yards away
Across the hollow ground
lay new markers that are ironically
the similar in
color
Just more jagged
Swollen and
nameless
The river is funny
that way
The road is closed
but people come to the edge
with cameras, flowers
and their
tears
Its the most excitement
they all have had
in a while
The people, the dead,
the fish, the trees,
the stones,
the gates,
the ice
and
me
The River is funny
that way
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