Run Off

This story was submitted on May 15, 2025 by Vicente Handa

Title: Run Off
Description: A poem inspired by Helene
Spatial Coverage: Boone, NC
Date: September 29, 2024
Extracted Text: Run Off
Vicente Handa, 9/29/24

In a high country where they stretch
From mountains to mountains,
Trees have limits too,
Taking only what they can hold.
When every cell is full
From roots to trunks to boughs,
Trees shut down their capillary action and
When too much is too much,
They allow the water to flow.

The water trickles, gurgles, cascades
Through rills, rivulets, runs, trickles, spring branches
`Til they can hold no more.
They send water down to brooks and creeks,
Eddying, riffling, meandering, filling every
Ditches, swales, and pools.
And when too much is too much,
Water moves down to streams and rivers.

The rivers may hold the water for a while
In crevices and in holes -
Potholes, plunge holes, scour holes.
But when too much is too much,
The water rises, filling the banks,
Spilling over flood plains,
Finding new tributaries, and
In tremendous force,
Drowning homes.

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