Black River Falls

Black River Falls

I like how one can hear the last word
As a noun or a verb depending
On how one feels. I feel like the black river
Is falling. Maybe it's the snow drifting
Down like confectionary sugar,
Or the highway patrol vehicles
Crouching like vultures on the shoulders
That make me hear a river falling.
I go into the antique store but don't
Buy anything, afraid that if I were
To take something away from this place
It would try to get back, and I fly 
Tomorrow. For a plane not to crash, 
Every object, down to the smallest stone
In a child's ring, has to be alright with leaving
The earth. McCarthy's last character was
Hospitalized here, which means I've been
Here before, even as my body was sitting
In a chair in San Francisco, reading. 
So who is the real ghost here, me or her?
Leaving Black River Falls, the last word
Becomes a noun, becomes a place black water
Comes to and turns white with fear.