William Tell Ravine

 [second version]

(a tributary of the North Yuba River, Sierra County, California)

Before he'd heard anything about Switzerland, Schiller,

Rossini & stuff, he'd looked across the river from the house

at the long white beard of William Tell Falls. The sheer-drop

ravine looked perpendicular.  No home for trout.  Im-

pulsively, at 17, he decided to hike up there.

Headed out, crossed the river, climbed straight up,

more laddering than walking. Ravine was path in form 

of bedrock. Manzanita brush walled the sides.

He got as far as the pool the falls slapped in jagged

pulses. Sounds of that constant collision careened

around the stone box. There was no climbing further.

In soaked jeans and wet boots, legs loaded up

with lactic acid, he slithered down like an arthritic

snake, satisfied to have spied on a geologic scene,

to have introduced himself to William Tell Ravine,

and to have witnessed water and rock in their own time.