While passing by a river, I saw

A river.

That’s all it was.

Just a river.

Not a mystery.

Not a ‘babbling brook’.

Nothing poetic

It was just a river

Wide and smooth

And flowing out to sea.

Calming, perhaps,

With its flow and gentle sounds

But not magical

And nothing poetic.

It’s just a river,

After all,

Flowing out to sea

Made of rain from hills

Or mountains.

A natural phenomenon

And nothing poetic

Flowing out to sea.

While passing by a river, I saw~ a dark shadow creature. It gazed at its hands that extended & formed sharp claws.

In a rush, I turned around and tried to escape. But my legs failed to move.

The shadow approached me and grinned. It lifted my chin and turned my head to the side.

I was too terrified to even scream. It seemed like all the air in my lungs had escaped.

The creature snarled & opened it’s mouth wide. I closed my eyes right and the next thing I felt was a sharp pain on my left shoulder.

My eyes moved to check my shoulder. I saw the chunk of flesh that it had taken from me. My heart was beating out of control.

What a way to go. I always thought that I would have died from drowning because I didn’t know how to swim.

#ShadowCreature.©

While passing by a river I saw a flash of white amongst the reeds. I stopped, frozen, my eyes darting about and latching onto a flicker of movement. I wanted to walk closer, to brush aside the reeds and find the source of the color and the rustling in the tall grass. I knew that heeding these impulses could only bode ill. So, step by step I dragged my unwilling feet away from the shore line and to safety. For no person in possession of their senses would go down to the river in the week of the Rusalka.

While passing by a river,

I saw a single flower,

Standing like a tower.

In the cold it did not shiver.

Nobody seemed to care,

How over the river it leaned,

How in the dim light it beamed.

A single daffodil stood there!

Growing so ambitious.

It must have needed a stimulus.

And you might call me ridiculous.

But I point at the spirit of Narcissus.

While passing by a river I saw the shallow portion and went to the river and drank some water and was coming back. The crow sitting on the tree screamed.

I am the watchman & watching the river for so long and how you took water without my permission? Now, pay me double. The river is mine.

For air which I am breathing also should I pay?

Yes

********************

While passing by a river, I saw a man leading a crying cow. “Where’re you going,” I ask. He says, "I must kill this cow so that my family may eat." The cow sniffled, "I have been a good cow. I have given my milk for cheese, but I can't provide for the man anymore." I turned in anger, "How dare you! This cow has given her life to provide for you!" The man hung his head, "She is loyal and hardworking, but my family is sick. My family is dying and poor." I cry, "Why not berries or grains?" The man shook his head, "I can’t plow a field. My wife becomes ill on grain. My children are poisoned by berries. These things fill us up but threaten our lives." He leads away the sobbing cow. It brings me sadness, but I know life must come from death.

While passing by a river…. I saw it. I caught it! A glimpse of a familiar face. A feeling of warmth and comfort surrounded my once happy heart.

As I knelt to the ground, the feeling melted away almost as quickly as it had appeared. The reflection now bearing a new face. One without a name.

The hollowed cheeks that once bore my courageous smile were now almost as unrecognizable as the bags I carry under my sore tired eyes.

I finally exhaled as if waiting for an emotion to yield itself into existence.

It didn’t.

I returned to my feet and slowly averted my eyes from the image now forever engraved in my mind.

All other emotions whisked away with the rustle of the falling autumn leaves. Acceptance filled my bones as I once more became acquainted with the cold brisk air that filled the trees around me.

While passing by a river, I saw, through swirling snow which was gathered on the icy banks and disappered into the rushing rapids at the river's center, a man which looked like my father. I say "looked like" because there was something wrong about the face; the eyes were too small and dark, and the beard covered too much of his cheeks. But, crazed from the cold, I didn't give it much thought until later, and by then it was too late.

He led me to a cave on the bank of the river where we were joined by phantasms of my mother and sister. They encouraged me to lay down and rest, and I foolishly complied. When I awoke, I discovered that the cave now harbored four otters: the three devious Kushtaka which had lured me there, and myself.

While passing by a river, I saw a shade of blue I had never seen before. Intrigued, I crossed over an engine bridge towards mountains that towered above like statues, each one a masterpiece of its own. I wandered through the pines that lined the water, elk grazed nearby and bears watched silently as I passed by. The river meandered until my ascent, and from there I could hear the waterfall singing its song. Slowly, the trees became less and the rocks became more until I reached the lakes. Emerald in color and even more captivating than the jewel, I had reached the source, the beginning of the wild blue below, and only then did I understand that though the river may have changed from beginning to end - hidden, trickling, twisted, coursing, voracious, wandering - it only became more beautiful.

While passing by a river, I saw two small baby ducks. They were alone. No mother in sight. They didn’t look like they were moving with the current. Stuck. I took a step closer to the riverbed edge. Something didn’t seem right. I started looking around. The details of this scenery seemed off. The water was making noise, and looked like it was flowing, but at the same time it wasn’t? No trees, no flowers, only grass. Hills, upon hills, of luscious green grass. It was cut to perfection and smelled as though it had just been cut. No one was here. It was only me.

I wanted to be closer to the ducks. I began to take a step off the edge when I felt a dull pain in my arm.

“Jessica, whoa don’t do that. These shrooms are crazy though, right? You seeing what I’m seeing?”