Song
“Marry me,” said the river.
“I never will,” said she,
“For you’d shut me up
in a golden boat
and carry me out to sea.”
“Marry me,” said the salmon
as he climbed his rocky stair.
“Oh, no,” said she,
“For my golden boat
will never sail up there.”
“Marry me,” said the black bear
as he eyed her greedily.
“Oh, no,” said the girl
with the rainbow sides,
“For you shall have none of me.”
So she built her house by the river,
using her witch’s art,
of the water’s song
and the salmon’s flash
and the black bear’s greedy heart.
by Catherine Rogers
Editor’s Note: These lines have the intonation and whimsy of a children’s poem, yet an undertow of a more adult nature pulls the reader below the rhyme and meter and into a more ominous landscape.
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