The Commissioners’ Friends

Milton Jordan

November 1, 2021

Upstream from two interstate bridges

the San Gabriel in spring surge slaps

its current against the rocky south bank

before running more smoothly through concrete

pilings into a pool no longer

a favored picnic and swimming spot,

edges now skimmed with off-colored algae,

but deep-pocket developers still deflect

every challenge from our loose coalition

we named Valley River Advocates

to mock their planned Valley River Estates

clearing another eighty-eight acres

along the river’s more rolling north bank

where the county scrapped the plan to create

hiking trails and a nature preserve.

Milton Jordan lives in Georgetown with the musician Anne Elton Jordan. His most recent poetry collection is What the Rivers Gather, SFASU Press, 2020. Milton edited the anthology, No Season for Silence: Texas Poets and Pandemic, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2020.