Beginnings

 I think it is human to want to mark new beginnings.  We are always hopeful that we can begin again.  We don*t talk so much of endings.  When we leave school we commence to do something else.  When we retire, we face the beginning of retirement.  We speak of ending well, but we don*t stay there long at all.  Maybe that*s right, but it seems we should spend some time remembering the Mississippi before it becomes the Gulf of Mexico...

It is hard to find

Where something really begins

Or ends.

Years ago I stood on the rocks

At Lake Itasca

In northern Minnesota.

A small stream flows from the lake,

Becomes the Mississippi River.

The sign says so.

I stood on the rocks

Next to the sign.

It marks

Where the Mississippi begins.

I had my picture taken there and

Also in front of the Dairy Queen

In Park Rapids.

Both were important that day.

It was summer and hot.

Jeff tells me that he watched the barges

Come round the bend

In New Orleans,

Amazed at the way the bargemen

Shot the rapids of the Mississippi

Before it entered

The Gulf.

I don*t know if he had ice cream.

I figure between the two of us

We may have beginnings

And endings

Covered.

I wonder if there is a sign

In New Orleans

Marking the end of the Mississippi

Or if there are only signs

Where things begin.

Here begins the Gulf of Mexico

It might say.

It is May.

Everyone is graduating now.

Soon will come the Commencement

One more beginning.

Spring began awhile ago.

I can*t say exactly when

Winter ended,

Spring began.

It seems we only wait

For new beginnings.

It is hard to find the exact place

Where something begins:

Stand on the rocks,

Take a picture

Next to the sign.