Poem: “Like Ghosts of Eagles”

The Indians have mostly gone

but not before they named the rivers

the rivers flow on

and the names of the rivers flow with them

          Susquehanna   Shenandoah

–

The rivers are now polluted plundered

but not the names of the rivers

cool and inviolate as ever

pure as on the morning of creation

          Tennessee   Tombigbee

–

If the rivers themselves should ever perish

I think the names will somehow somewhere hover

like ghosts of eagles

those mighty whisperers

          Missouri   Mississippi

“Like Ghosts of Eagles” from Collected Poems (1936-1976). Copyright © 1976 by Robert Francis. Reprinted by permission of the University of Massachusetts Press.