Mack and I go back. Way back. Yes, that's me taking photos like paparazzi. I should be so lucky because I truly was in the presence of greatness. A poet. Someone so "SpoCOOL." Who are you really Mack? Does Ciao Mambo have salmon-stromboli? Text after the jump from Riverspeak.

Ode to the Salmon in the River by Mack Salmon

Every time I see the Spokane River,
Roaring streams I feel through me and I shiver,
Gingerly in this nature’s fishbowl of emotions,
Synergy,
Life.

I’ll never forget the gazelle drinking from its well so deep,
A holy matrimony of water and beast,
A feast,
Nature’s high priest,
Me at the bottom, drifting harmoniously to sleep.

The most powerful current can not hide,
The pollution, poison, now seeping in from aside,
Strangling me,
Slowly, down to earth,
Like I was part of a salmon-stromboli, dirt.

I’m happiest when I find a pocket of pure,
Water, taking me back,
To the shores up North,
And so forth,
Stop! Go.

I never asked for it to be this way,
The strangling of our river, giving me cirrhosis of the liver
I hope and pray,
O’Riverkeeper, don’t make me a filet,
But on your promise of life in the Spokane River…
… Please…
… Deliver.


 

---

---