We had staked out our spot

Before noon along the Upper Mississippi

With blankets, board games, and books

Baskets of spicy BBQ, eggy potato salad, and broccoli cole slaw

A cooler of lucious lemonade and salted watermelon

Waiting for dark and fireworks

 

In the lazy hours before nightfall

We welcomed visitors, friends and strangers,

sharing our baskets and games

and laughter

 

Some took short walks

To the Stone Arch Bridge

To watch the Marcy Homes parade

Of costumed kids riding bikes

With bright ribbons in their spokes

Or pulled in festooned red wagons

With signs celebrating

Their privileged freedom,

 

Some took long walks to see

Free Shakespeare in the Park

Gathering new friends along the way

Well worth the price

 

Whoever couldn’t take the heat

Rode the trolley to the movies

To relish in conditioned air

 

We feasted together

And separately

Close enough to watch the woodchucks playing along the banks

And see the boats passing St. Anthony Falls

Where the dam unlocked the waters so they could pass through

 

But we were not the first to see the lone small boat

Stuck at a bend before the Falls

Until the helicopter hovered above them

Then we saw

Two people – a couple –

Perched at the wrong point

Where any moment

They could be towed under

 

Someone had a radio

So we could hear how

The two boaters were

Not following directions

As rescuers tried to save them

 

We missed the long drama but

We witnessed the miracle

Of two squirming bodies rising into the sky

On lifelines

Like new life

Plucked from the wombs of death

Trailing umbilicals

 

After the celebration

And the anticipated sparkling display

Painting that night sky

We hurried home

To learn the woman was John’s sister

And her husband

Both deaf to our world

And their danger

 

I waited for John to write the story

crafty in his clever voice

so I could feel his sister’s every fears

and share her exhilarating joy

as she became the celebration

we saw against the sky

 

But he only told us how

They’d come to see the fireworks

And bask below the silent glow

Of liberation

before getting caught by the waterfall

 

When we came again to camp

along the river

and wait for the night,

owners had built barriers to keep

spectators

from their private lawn

 

we found a spot on.a small hard hill

but could not see the woodchucks

or even the shore;

we could not walk to Shakespeare

on the other side of the fence

nor could we find the trolley

hidden behind that curtain

of privilege;

there was no space to welcome strangers

inside our laughter,

now strained and contained

 

we ate sparingly without gusto

and left before dark

with half full baskets

knowing we’d already seen the best

of freedom

riding across the sky

 

we never came again