magritte morning

it was either dusk or dawn
& i was about to cross the river
with brown paper bags of groceries
for a celebration of sorts

about to walk the little foot bridge
noticed it was flooded--
only a tiny outline
of the bridge was shown

there was a small family sitting in water
up to their shoulders
in the center of the foot bridge;
i asked what had happened

they said i had overslept
if i wished to cross the river
i was needing to swim

after surveying the calm  shallow waters,
i chose to leave the bags of groceries behind-
and swim in the warm green waters,
seemingly only the length
of half a football field

a magritte skied morning:
freshly stroking the water in a breast stroke,
i left  what i knew of the east,
to embrace the drier western side

Kate Lamberg