Saving the Arroyo Seco

By Thomas R. Thomas

There are many rivers
in Southern California.
So many I don’t have the
room to tell you here.

Which answers the question:
is there a river in LA?

The LA rivers are wild.
When it rains the whole land
is nourished with water.

The water spreads out
and covers the LA basin –

or it did.

We have encroached on the land.
Our fragile buildings can’t
take the force of nature,

so we confined the rivers
and wasted the water.

But we are saving the Arroyo Seco

—or trying.