Poetry Magazine
Arroyo: Flash Flood
The canyon walls close in again,
slant light a silver glare in brown water.
The water is only knee deep, but when the boy reaches the
boulders—
purple dark, silvered by the smash of brute water—
water will tear at his chest and arms.
The walls of the canyon are brilliant in late light.
They would have glared red and gold for his drowned camera:
splashed blood to his left, to his right a wall of sun laddered
with boulders.
More than boulders. Some stranger once fought down this
cliffside,
his rope of twisted dry vines strung boulder to boulder,
clifftop to arroyo. Escape. Escape maybe. Maybe bones
in the desert.
I think of hands scuffed raw from the braiding.
Almost…. Water froths over the boulders,
tugs at the boy’s footing. Almost….
The blood cliff to his left blinds him. Blind nails scrape at
two boulders,
a torn vine whipping somewhere above him.
He wedges knees against polished rock, pressing up, clawing
slick stone.
Now. Rope cutting his hand, he skids underwater:
silver and froth, a film of bright blood staining his eyes.
But he drags hand over hand up out of the water, climbing
the sun
hand over hand, the ancient vines holding,
boulders for foothold, up out of that canyon.
Source: Poetry (August 1989).
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This poem originally appeared in the August 1989 issue of Poetry magazine
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Poems by John Unterecker
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Living, Coming of Age, Activities, Sports & Outdoor Activities, Nature, Seas, Rivers, & Streams
POET’S REGION U.S., Western
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