(This vertical prose has been rewritten in horizontally and posted on July 24, 2012.) \n<\/a> \nstay out of american river \nkids in neighborhood often \ntold there\u2019s undertow you \ncan\u2019t see branches either \nhere read today\u2019s newspaper \nanother boy\u2019s drowned \nstill couldn\u2019t stay out of water \nnor could other kids \nswimming whenever wanted \nnever meeting danger until \nmature enough to drink friday \nnight cops yelled hey you guys \ncome here instead friend and \ni dropped beers in park \nand raced over levee churned \nthrough long stretch sand \nand dove into river other \nguy strong swimmer in shorts \nno shirt and shoes i bad \nswimmer fully dressed and \nexhausted halfway across \ndark river knew despite daze \nneeded help called for strong \nswimmer must not have heard \ni held breathe and went under \nto rip off water trapping shirt \nand back up for air before going \ndown again to pull off shoes and \nthen flailed arms and legs in \nfrantic motor toward shore i \nreached gasping unable to talk \nten minutes then said where \nhell you right there friend said \ndon\u2019t worry could\u2019ve easily hauled \nyou in with fireman\u2019s carry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(This vertical prose has been rewritten in horizontally and posted on July 24, 2012.) stay out of american river kids in neighborhood often told there\u2019s undertow you can\u2019t see branches either here read today\u2019s newspaper another boy\u2019s drowned still couldn\u2019t stay out of water nor could other kids swimming whenever wanted never meeting danger until…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,446,703,493,110],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Middle of River - Part 2 - George Thomas Clark<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n