Her Passing Beauty

The Willamette drifts slowly through town,
the journey from mountain to sea nearly over.
Soon she will join the Columbia for the last long reach
of brilliant light and rushing cloud, to give herself
to the surging bar and broad ocean.
From a weathered rock
looking down into her dark water,
suddenly she offers a glint of reflected light
on a metal bright scale
and lifts the nape of her neck to the wind
wanting me to notice
and love her passing beauty.