Writing by the far off, flickering
sometimes invisible light of cars
Willow tree’s branches dangling majestic all around me
digest and dissolve me.

All the lights of D.C. contained in the Potomac River
And all the lights of past Washington D.C.’s
Back to the beginning
Before there were lights
Before there was a D.C.
When the native men and women of that world glided
Quiet
          upon its glittering surface

In dugout canoes and kayaks
Like swans

The Potomac is a time capsule
And only It knows what may be found drifting in its currents.

Everywhere
the sound of motorized vehicles
Omnipresent, incessant the sound
Like cicadas on a humid, summer’s night