Scaling the Delaware

for Catherine

We call it
Scaling the Delaware,
a game we play
floating on our stomachs
facing upriver
in summer shallows
when we can touch bottom
and probe silt-slippery
shale bedrock
with our fingers
for crags and fissures
fit to grip and pull
ourselves up
against the current’s
relentless tug.
 
Backs to clouds,
heads above water,
we climb the river.
Our bodies,
trolled out behind us,
ride the incoming flow
like rafts in tow.
 
A green bridge
around the bend
spans the banks
like a finishing line,
but it is not for that end
we climb. We climb
to climb a waterfall
while we can, our heads
bobbing together
on downpour
as they ascend.