Eureka

Release the shelter of bare feet, rhinestones on big toes sparkle. The tentacle-shine of sunwheat on the scrapyard-swig of river. Like a sunflower, the mudlark shuts her eyes, complexion surrenders to the sun’s spark as sighs rush about cool ankles. This lackadaisical leisure lost to the whimsical call of wings. Her playful ponderings defrost — she ponytails long cinnamon hair. Wonders what the silt will give up today, muscles prepare for work out. Long hours linger — she’s no buttercup. The slow rustle of water into the pan. The seersucker-mud like a baby’s first shoe — she cannot wriggle out of them and for this Eurekan-tub she thirsts. A simmering giggle at her search. Tinkering with the gold dish — shuffling treasures in the round. Precious stones ticklish, the swishing sound resplendent. Her ancestors with wagons came, ready to obtain riches and lavish land, in the cold-hearted chamber untame, traded ditches and shovels for pans. Their memories roar in loss of their eyes in the tundra of time. What’s lost in mystery, she hopes to find — their trinket goodbyes. What was the cost, for it was not her life. Perhaps a broach of a great-great aunt — oh what pleasurable mint but repetition of weeping, for surely the ghost would haunt but it would be a worthwhile footprint. Her plum-warm cheeks enjoy the dive and swirl of her memory-seeking sojourn. Her golden irises and vibrating fists survive peeking into the melodic riverbed’s thoughts. Her tail swings with ebb and flow of seconds, like a cuckoo clock with precise repetition. Surprised, the splash of a trout beckons — his stock contained in this friendly wave. Up and down all day securing finds of ugly nails and twine, but then she finds a button. A payday! It’s small and torn but lovely. Eureka! a Victorian star, a sign of life. 3/30/2020