No Name Creek

I cannot say

how many times I came,

how many gifts

I laid upon the rocks,

the cobbled banks

Always with

the same request -

No Name Creek,

let me remember

thy names

And never

for years a reply

I could decode,

for all my persistence

and devotion

Until one evening,

I came with empty hands,

and cupping them just so,

drew the body of the water

into my mouth

Then the names

came loose and flowing

like quicksilver, loose

and flowing into me,

into my body

And this was how

I came to learn,

any offering followed

by a request

is a bribe