I took this photograph yesterday at Coonskin Park in Kanawha County West Virginia. Like the narrator in “A River Runs Through It,” I am haunted by waters, especially rivers.
This moment in the final image reminded me of someone with whom I was close friends as a teenager whose life — and those lives of everyone who was close to him — was irrevocably altered by an unintended pregnancy.
Without judgment, I reflect on that summer and wonder where he is now. I hope his dreams are coming true.
But I remember us riding in my brother’s car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I’d lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Image credit: E. Gaucher; Lyrics: Bruce Springsteen
Esse Diem 