the levee

Baton Rouge, Louisiana bridge, originally uploaded by gurdonark.

In life you walk the levee, whether you know it is a levee or not. The river is below you--it's big and it's onrushing and it's entirely beyond you and yet it feels like home to you anyway.

There are all sorts of signs along the levee-way. One sign cautions you to treat all you see with a kind of religious solemnity, because there are memories enshrined here. Another sign invites you to gamble with your life. Another sign invites you to cycle along serenely.

The bridges lead from the levee to places you've never been, and to places you'll never go. You see the girders stretch before you, and you watch the trucks and compact cars go by. You imagine what it would be to ride in one, but you're walking your own levee.

Is that a pocket destroyer floating in the river? You pass by colorful murals to hunt a better view. A kestrel perches atop a street light.
You have always walked this levee. You will always walk this levee.
This levee is completely foreign to you.