River Morning, July
Painting by Kevin Macneil Brown, watercolor and graphite on paper, 2015.
Viridian of river, a current
strong enough to float blue slate
beneath the three mile bridge--
the bridge (sap green) that Hopper painted
in watercolor circa 1934.
Sun-splash on gravel bar
sandpiper flashing, silver
and buff in morning light
that song
a floating bell
the floating stone
is gone now
skimmed or sunken, like
space or time or memory.
Black locust, yellow birch, butternut
thicket to shade the curving
shoreline,
dark boughs holding, then releasing,
the veery’s sweet and spiraling
summer river song.
- Kevin Macneil Brown
