Waterways      for Rex Vest

Rex gifts me pebble

Off Gallipoli shoals--

Color of a crater's floor,

Flat, smooth; shimmed

With sparks of iron ore.

From same shingle beach,

Poet Lord Byron swam,

Retraced mythic Leander's

Plunge 'cross Hellespont--

To reach forbidden love.

I collected stones

When a little girl--

One, an old brick,

Pocked, knocked

By discard 'til

Cornerless--

I scooped the red

Cobble

From Tujunga Wash,

One morning, the water,

A rivulet glistening,

Easily breached

By my teeny stride;

Oh, delicate Dardanelles!

Laura Stickney 2023

Notes:

Gallipoli--Pennisula of European Turkey between

the Dardanelles and Gulf of Saros.

Poet Lord Byron--English romantic poet, 1788-1824.

In 1810 he swam the Hellespont Strait, later called

the Dardanelles.

Leander--In greek mythology, a youth who loved Hero

and swam the Hellespont each night to be with her.

Tujunga Wash--Wildlife sanctuary in Southern California.

Originally home to the Tongva People.