Poetry Night at the Writing Life, 25 May 2024

A poem about two rivers.

At left, a working barge and boats on the Mississippi River near Fort Madison, Iowa, May 2024. At right, a crossing of the Des Moines River northwest of Eddyville, Iowa.

The past three months of my life have been symbolized by rivers. One, the Mississippi River, symbolizes home for me, both past and future. It was the river my parents grew up on back up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where I grew up in Muscatine, Iowa, where I and my wife raised our family in Clinton, Iowa, and back in Muscatine, and where my wife and I have settled at Fort Madison, Iowa. If there is anyplace I consider home, it is the banks of the Mississippi.

I’ve been away from there for a while, and away from my wife Laura while I’ve been finishing up my work at my current school district before I can return to Fort Madison full time. I always thought of south central Iowa, where I’ve called home for the past four years, as a place without any major rivers.

However, there has been one river I keep running across in my commutes and travels in southern and central Iowa - the Des Moines River. I’ve crossed it twice every day commuting between my school and the very cozy Dutch heritage town …