Where them muddy waters flowed

Down by the river

where them muddy waters flowed

is where my mind goes

at times,

a levee and a hunter’s camp,

one abandoned,

not unspoiled and not as

the Creator made it

yet mostly empty

spare for the railroad

across the water

and the truck

that I drove there.

‘

Peace on earth is fleeting,

fading,

hardly there at all,

but sometimes–

sometimes in the midst of it all–

you can feel it outside

the contentment

in your heart