Writing “Life on the Mississippi”

for Mr. Twain
Mark Twain wrote the entirety of ‘Life on the Mississippi’ in a small study in Elmira, NY. But that’s no business of mine.

I wonder all the places you found him
writing “Life on the Mississippi.”

In a dark-paneled library,
in a chair on the third-deck
of a paddle-wheeler,

or just at home,
inventing a confluence
of waters and events

only he could navigate.

All of these places, I’m sure,
and others. Up and down
the length of it,

4300 miles, he claimed.
A mind meant to explore
like Lasalle’s canoe,

barely manageable,
and unsure what he would find

Make your arguments,
doubt prescience,
but the man got it

a hundred years before
it was there to be gotten.
The keenest wit

and a white-haired detective.
He knew what got stolen
and tried to give it back.

So, flow on, Mississippi.
Crack a country in half
before it knows

it even is one.
Let’s celebrate what there is
to be celebrated.

Start a raft down
the Ohio carrying
a white suit.

Start another down
the Missouri
with a grand mustache.

A bottle of whiskey
and a cigar
are already waiting

on a dock
in New Orleans.

–August 9, 2016