From A Bridge

I saw my mother standing there below me On the narrow bank just looking out over the river

Looking at something just beyond the taut middle rope Of the braided swirling currents

Then she looked up quite suddenly to the far bank Where the densely twined limbs of the cypress

Twisted violently toward the storm-struck sky There are some things we know before we know

Also some things we wish we would not ever know Even if as children we already knew & so

Standing above her on that bridge that shuddered Each time the river ripped at its wooden pilings

I knew I could never even fate willing ever Get to her in time