busy![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heartsinger. It also fills the "vivid" square in my 4-19-16 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
genprompt_bingofest. This poem belongs to the series An Army of One. All 14 verses have been posted. Linkers include DW user Dialecticdreamer, 
technoshaman, DW user Librarygeek, kestrels_nest, mdlbear, Anonymous on DW, lone_cat, DW user Fyreharper, ng_moonmoth, daisiesrockalot, and DW user Librarygeek."Thinking River Thoughts"
Her name was Myrtle, and
this time she had sent him
wild iris rhizomes packed
in a bucket of damp moss.
Along with that came
a memory chip full of
videos from her yard
and her gardens.
There was the tame curl of
river below her bedroom window,
with flowerbeds flanking the steps
that led down to it and more flowers
blooming yellow in the shallow water.
There was the wilder part of the river
where it ran over rounded stones,
vivid blue water between tufts
of tall emerald grasses.
There was the sound of the river,
too, quiet gurgle near the house
and louder chuckle over the stones.
Sam the Gardener opened the note
that came with the packages.
I'm thinking river thoughts today,
about how rivers clean their water.
So I'm sending you wild irises,
because everyone needs
clean water. I imagine that
it's not easy to come by in
space, not falling free from
the sky like it does here.
You can make a filter out of
flowers if you know how. There
are instructions on the chip.
Think of me and my river
while you are making yours.
Sam knew that Myrtle
would never leave her home
with its rolling hills and flowers
and vivid living river.
He cherished the gifts that
she sent to him, though.
So he planted a marsh filter
to find out how well it would
really purify water, and he
enjoyed the trickling sound
of his miniature river.
He sent Myrtle a pendant
sliced from a meteorite,
its peridot marked by a swirl
of silvery nickel-iron like
a river between green hills.
Thank you for sharing glimpses
of your home, he wrote back.
Here are some of my own.
And he showed her his river
with a sprinkle of reflected stars.
* * *
Notes:
"I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars."
— Edward Abbey
Wild iris is a lovely flower. Some varieties should be shipped dry, others wet.
Plants can be used to create a marsh filter that cleans waste water. Watch a video of one in action.
Yellow Flags are marsh flowers. This is the wild river.</user></user>
