across the river

by horace p sternwall

across the river on the edge of town washingtons gather when the sun goes down jeffersons don’t dare to show their face and lincolns have vanished without a trace old man mose still keeps the store but forgets to open it more and more mrs jackson sits outside all day and reverend johnson has a few things to say clouds are gathering as we speak young folks leave town every week they go somewhere and that’s where they are they run and hide but they can’t get far everything is different since the mill closed down people walk by the river and a few of them drown grandma sits in her rocking chair and looks out the window but there is nobody there