CREEK

A child plays
By the Creek
Exploring the
Physics
Of the Universe.

Throwing rocks
Into Tumbling Water.
Sound, Splashes of Light
And tiny muscles
Stretched.

A Wild Creek
In a patch of the 
Still Wild, Remaining
Like a stain
On the map

Of America.
Between the
Highways, Hamlets
Towns and Cities
That make the map.

And will make
Their Lives:
Playing by the Creek
An anomaly in their
Education.

To be corrected
Like Coloring
Outside the lines.
Erased by
Future Experience.

Expunged from 
The useful
Re-allocated
To the Imaginary
The Inchoate.

Or, Secreted away
Perhaps, in a Knowing
That the Wild
Is the Keen Edge
Of Reality.