Bravado comes in clusters 
when she indulges, 
coins dropping & disappearing 
like tears on a dusty floor
while a front man runs roughshod
across her heart, growling an age old song
of betrayal, clothes dotting a front yard
and new locks on the door.

I remember the breeze lifting 
her hair as the ferry
fought swells in the river & she
gave her fight to its murky arms.
It was a regular day
until it wasn’t, her smooth smile 
drowning at the landing,
muddy footprints leading to a song.

Today I used the word generator again and got these words:

cluster

indulge

coin

ferry

regular

smooth

I decided to use the words in the order they appeared. After, I looked at some of my old river photos in my Flickr and found this one of the small ferry that crosses the Mississippi from my hood of Algiers to the foot of Canal Street. I can’t believe of all the river photos I have that this is the only one of the ferries that ran at that time.