A Tribute to Fractals

Leslie Thomas

Hardly anything in nature is straight.
I’m reminded of this while flying
over the Yukon Territory on a clear day.
From 30,000 feet, I trace the alternating
keyhole-shaped outlines of a stream.
Ground scars and scroll bars of an old course
chronicle the landscape, as Birch branches
reflect the way of the sun in the air.
Is this how all rivers want to be?
Changing form, meandering to the ocean,

taking their time. Unconstrained
curves bearing more curves, cradle
within a floodplain of their making.
A swift flow erodes one side,
while a silty ladle adds to the other.
Repeating this motion over and over,
an oxbow lake is born and a new biome
rises. Soil and water in sync—
like milk flowing from a mother’s breast
in response to her infant’s thirst.

The Science

My poem was inspired by the awe I experienced while viewing the movement of a river and the interaction between water, soil and rock across a landscape—past and present—free of flood walls and other human derived constraints.

The Poet

Leslie Thomas is a mother of three adult sons and writer from Minnesota. She coordinated a creative writing project dedicated to the Mississippi River and her article ‘Writing the River’ was featured in University of Minnesota’s Open Rivers journal. Leslie’s poetry was included in Belwin Conservancy’s  2023 A Recent History of Poetry at Belwin and her poem placed in St. Paul Almanac’s 2022 Break Through writing contest. Recent publications include the Planet in Peril anthology from Fly on the Wall press and The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy. Leslie holds an MSc in Environmental History from The University of Edinburgh.

Next poem: Arctic foxes grow their own gardens by Alice Major