Miramichi Afternoon

Miramichi Afternoon The sloping shoulders of the river tumble down rock on rock toward the wind-riffled, slow flowing water. Alder and grass creep down the slope but will be ripped out once again by the ice out floods of early spring. The stones and haphazard boulders are sun baked into featureless gray, their bright minerals shrouded from view. Land living things are more sparce here and those present are paused by the heat. Out on the water a dimple of a ring rise, perhaps a salmon, more likely a trout. A noiseless punctuation of somnolence.