irreducible

water riffles over rocks

in shallow turmoil,

spurts

at crossovers,

and meanders

to the banks to scour the margin

I hold on to a branch

flow tumbles

at the knick-point

and bellows,

step to step,

in solid spray

that makes volume heavy

I feel my voice

and fall flees

down to the basin,

its upsurge

muffled by depth,

underflow

spawns anguished bubbles

I catch the pops

collapses in the plunge

pool whirls and fries

foam and twigs and leaves

and holds kinetic mass

in unresolved vortex

I cup my hands and liquid overflows

sun jinks on the pool

shards dissociate on the glaze

I can not hold the dapples in my eyes

a deep run slackens flow and

surface water and groundwater and drip and spray and rain

pool together

and assimilate sweat

I breathe green air

liquid tension, disrupted by hands,

absorbs them and

reforms without trace

behind the dragged vee

I exhale a cloud

cobbles and boulders and fingertips polished

by the flow present a skin that smooths identity

I look behind myself

beneath the canopy, light

sinks

to the bedrock and

returns rusty from

the underflow

sediment breeds green fur

I slip on rock

oxbow mud contains the lag

is pushing into space between my toes

is sticking to everything and nothing

can escape its brute grip

I curl my toes into the slime

the agony of water tells me

I am free