Little Girl (III) - draft

Up front, let me tell you, little boys and girls
that like Marlene Dietrich,"I sometimes like a man
who doesn't believe what a woman tells him."

By the cackling fire slept a party of four
to keep predators at bay
in a northern portion of Wyoming
overhead, an ink well of a night,
its stillness is engulfing
if stars could sing like cherubim, believe me
more than misty, my eyes would be splintered
sometimes, I wish just for that
for a million stars to pierce me through
and heaven's mercy might be just like that
as cold as the passing fire of meteors

And then the sky begins to pale in the quadrant
the foursome by the cackling begin to stir
and awake without alarm clock
to pack the gear in silence, which is rare for tourists
and drink a cup of bitter coffee, which too is rare
for only the flimsy drink black coffee sweet
and they that won't sip it deep or pack their gear in silence
for heaven's mercy might be like so
the fire doused, a new day dawning
and the steady flow of channeled water

they push the rubber into the stream
two men and a women and a girl, maybe all of 11,
a bit of sleep still in her eyes, it was not coffee that she drank
instead a cup of Ovaltine. Her mother believes
you drink coffee before menstruation
your growth may be stunted

Before they all get soaked and harried
I nuzzle up to the woman to inquire as to who she is
and coy within, she replies,
"Some of my friends call me Janet Reno"
and I to keep the gag aloft ask
"So who then is the President?"

For you who may not be in the know
Reno was once Clinton's Attorney General
infamous for the incident at Waco

Replies Sister Girlfriend
"Don't make me laugh until I cry
Bill's my ex but his last name's Davies
as to the other guy, he's next in line
to try to groom me...that is, if he survives the rapids


I, River Squaw, wink at the girl all of 11
flat chested, who's not yet to seen her first egg drop
and make to her a soft suggestion,
"Best hold on tight, Clementine,
this ride is just beginning."

And up and down they go,
a-rafting through canyon slides
as if shot from one helluva water cannon
white waters are not by boulders stopped
they cut their path through rocks and glassy mountains
with dipped and tipped and studded rings
of fingered aquatic diamonds
dipped and tipped and stutted