Riverfront Park on Southside

Even before this place
was discovered
and made into a fine parklet, 
it was attractive.

A few decades ago the obscure street was a path with pavement.
ending at the river.  Then you could park your car and walk 
beneath the maze of trees,
part the head-high bushes, and look.

An uncut lawn sloped gently down,
and invited a shoeless foot.
Ferns and willows guarded the shore.
The water seemed a simple blue.

Then you might notice the opposite shore.
Industrial cranes and railroad tracks
seemed distant, vague, and unrelated.
Green trees hid the rusty, empty steel mill.

The forgotten parcel along the river
was calm and quiet.
The bridges up and down the river
framed a scene that seemed
to exclude the angled shapes
of the towers of town.

The green land felt isolated,
as if there were no connection to the buildings. 
The daily city: receding like a dream
from this older unseen island in the stream.

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