A white man called it Falls Creek
because, what else—with three broad tiers
of dizzying drop—could it be?
He never heard the deeper names:
Moss Heaven Creek
Flying Clouds of Mist
Creek of Hemlock Lace
River Without Lid
The hiker remembers—
Wait-Till-You-See-Me-in-Snowmelt Creek
Water’s Best Ride
Dog-Wants-No-Part-of-Your-Selfie Creek
Rainbow River
The disciple learns—
River That Thunders to Silence You
Creek Where Trees Lie Down in Prayer
—
Kelly Lenox (The Brightest Rock, 2017) writes poetry and prose in Oregon. Her work appears in Poetry Daily, Black Warrior Review, Cold Mountain, RHINO, EcoTheo Review and elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, with an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Kelly publishes “Mama Ephemera’s Muddy Feet” on Substack (kellylenox.substack.com) and is a science editor at the National Institutes of Health.
