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Haibun by Tad Wojnicki

The Upside Down River
by
Tad Wojnicki

We sit where the Salinas River empties into Monterey Bay. Swept, we're not. This late, hardly any of it shows.

River Mouth Grill
fried trout at the table
in the riverbed

The river may not show, but it is gurgling underneath the sand through the
entire length of the Salinas Valley, soaking everything from onions to oranges
in its underground pools. Known as "The Upside Down River," it's the largest
submerged stream in America.

lovers long gone
sit by the river
teacher's mouth dry

Tad Wojnicki, a Shoah survivor, worked as a college teacher, fruit-picker and newspaperman who had arrived in the U.S. in 1977, speaking just two words, "I" and "you."

He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Creative Writing (San Francisco State University). Among his teachers, he enjoyed most Molly Giles, Frances Meyes, Ron Hansen, and Rick DiMarinis.

His work has appeared in the The Jewish Spectator, Harrisburg Review, Porter Gulch Review, Rear View Quarterly, Coffeehouse, Wild Embrace, Sugar Mule and most recently in the literary journal ZYZZYVA.

He is the author of a factual novel, Lie Under the Fig Trees (1996), a poetry chapbook Where Angels Catch Hell (2000).

He lives in Carmel, CA leading 'poetry powwows' on the beach and Write Like A Lover! workshops.

E-mail: wojnicki@aol.com.

Photo Credit: Marva B. Hoffman