‘The Museum of Things the River Returned’

Elizabeth Konkel is a photographer, artist, and writer who grew up inspired by nature thanks to the wildlife and landscape found on her family farm.

THE MUSEUM OF THINGS THE RIVER RETURNED

The river has opened a museum.

Admission is free.

Visitors drift quietly
through galleries of floodwater,

past glass cases holding
what the current could not forgive:

a child's sneaker,

three rusted fishing lures,

a wedding photograph
blurred into weather.

An entire room is devoted
to plastic:

bottles,
caps,
fragments polished smooth as prayer stones.

Each object bears
a small brass placard.

UNKNOWN OWNER.

UNKNOWN DATE.

UNKNOWN LESSON.

Schoolchildren arrive
with notebooks.

They sketch the shapes
of our forgetting.

One asks why fish
keep swallowing things
that were never alive.

The guide looks toward the river.

Outside,
cottonwoods release
their soft white signatures
into the wind.

Inside,
a turtle shell rests beneath glass,
its ribs stitched shut
by six-pack rings.

The children write carefully.

Downstream,
the river continues collecting evidence.

It has become

a better historian
than we are.

David Anson Lee is a poet, philosopher, and former academic ophthalmologist whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Right Hand Pointing, Braided Way, Ink Sweat & Tears, Eunoia Review, Silver Birch Press, The Scarred Tree, The Orchards, Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and Mouthful of Salt. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he often explores themes of memory, identity, landscape, medicine, environmental stewardship, and the enduring relationship between human beings and the natural world. His poetry combines lyrical imagery with philosophical reflection and is informed by a lifelong interest in literature, science, and Indigenous traditions. He lives in Texas and is currently assembling a collection of poems exploring ecological responsibility, cultural memory, and hope. Substack: https://davidalee.substack.com/