River Light

River light
tuned to the sun
stretched
like pieces of spider silk,
white over the blue shallow water
and glacial pools,
the stones unraveled
and caught in the duck’s beak,
the heron,
the osprey,
the scrape of wings,
the lines on the water,
the intersection
of bug and current
and fallen alder leaves
tumbling the way
snow catches
on a hill,
pumping along the
thread
that ties mountain to sea,
sea to sky,
and the moments of darkness,
the bleached color before, at last, it rises.