The River and The Fish

 Once upon a time

There was a river

And a fish

The fish swam through the river

But the fish never lived in the river

Because you can’t live in a river

You can only travel it

As you move to another body of water

In this case, a lake

The river helped the fish

Get where it was going

And whenever it reached the lake

The river would run back

To its beginning

And help another fish

And another

The river had arms and legs

And small corners

And shores with reeds

And rocks climbing out

From all its centers

The fish would swim

Around every challenge

Presented by the river’s form

And every other season

It would travel from the lake

Back up the river

To a small pond

Where it would spend

All the quiet time

A fish enjoys in its life

One day, the fish went

To travel the river

And found that it wasn’t shaped

The same way it had before

The reliable way

To the lake

Was blocked by what appeared to be

A build-up of some kind

The fish didn’t know

What to do

It could go back to the pond

But it had never spent

This time of year there

And it wasn’t sure

That was a good idea

For the first time

In both their existences

The fish spoke to the river

And asked

What was going on

The river told the fish

That men had come

Over the past long while

While the fish was at the pond

And bogged down the path

To the lake

To move the river

In a different direction

The fish didn’t understand this

Men could be dangerous

With their fishing

And their nets

But they had never tried

To harm something as grand

And grandiose as a river

The fish decides

That after all the river has done

Not just for a tiny fish

But for all who use it

To travel to wherever they’re going

That something must

Be given back to it

The fish finds as many other fishes

As it can

Which isn’t difficult

Because none of the fish

Can go where they usually do

With the river’s new route

The fish then speak

To the toads and the frogs

And they speak to the birds

Who speak to the animals

That walk by the edges

Of the river

Upset at what they’re seeing

Before their eyes

Late that night

All the animals in

And around the river

Gather to push

Against the new blockade

The fish hit it from beneath

The water’s surface

While the birds and above-ground animals

Peck and claw and pummel it

Until specks of water

Begin spouting through it

Then gurgling

Then pouring

Then bursting

By morning, the stoppage

Had been cleared

And the men who showed up

Were stunned

To see that the river

Was running as normal again

And they surmised

That the water must be too strong

To dam down

So off they go

Looking for another river

They can harness

The river thanked the animals

For their service

But the fish

That one fish

Told the river that they were

Merely repaying

Hundreds of years of kindness

Before traveling down the river

Back to the lake

Where it would live

Until the time came

To swim back

The way it came