Winter River Poem by Deanna Samuels

The heavy rain of morning eased, ceased,
clouds parted, a glimmer of sun appeared,
roads quickly dried leading to the nearby river,
enabling to ride the trikes on yellow lined lane.

No more a slow, summer meandering stream,
today, a rushing, raging, roaring river
overflowing its curves of carved out banks
spilling onto soggy, brushwood ground beyond

Recent melting snows and heavy rain
evoked such overflow to seek new line to flow
gathering into deep muddy indented pools
spilling over to become quickening streams

Water runs down hillsides forming new riverlets
each edging a way to quickly reach main artery
swelling the main river beyond normal capacity
creating further overflow on each widening side

Footpaths and lanes are mostly soggy, icy, wet
with water flowing intermittently across
educing ponding at slightest indentation till full
draining slowly away, finding a lower level to go

Written at Courtice, Ontario - 26th January 2024