It Was As If, Or the River Like Gold

It was as if
something of immense value
was discovered in the river, like gold,
and everybody moved in at once,
building their houses quickly,
sure that once they too tapped the vein that rushed in the river
they could leave their shanty houses
and build a fancy house
out of town.

But hope never boomed here.
The houses, though crude,
were built carefully
with what could be found.

There was never an out-of-town,
just the porches added on later
in a sudden realization of more.
In the soft evenings the town rocked
on the wooden crescents of their rockers
to the tug of the waves against the bank.
They watched the river
run on, muddy and unremarkable,
yet still, somehow, like gold.

Published in Pavement magazine