Part 4: Pompei's Pillar on the Yellowstone River

Bulky Pompei’s Pillar
Towers over Yellowstone's River
Flowing;
That rugged brown bluff rears,
Engraved with historic graffiti

With Clark’s signatured
Declaration still writ large
Over 210 years later
Behind Plexiglas for us to gawk,
But Lewis ended it all;
Allegedly he balked;

Still the icy water courses on
Toward the Big Muddy
For all of us,
Finally down to the Gulf,
Each of us a brief tag
In this
Muddled flow of history,
Flashing specks
Sparks of consciousness,
Then ashed and gone--
Deep Time
Rushes
On



Dan Wilcox
First pub.
in Lunarosity,
then Dark Energy
Poetry Collection