Locks

 Locks

While reading the thesaurus one day,

Seeking words with which to poetically play,

I happened upon synonyms for “lock:” 

Tress, curl, tuft, and shock.

This made me think of navigational locks,

Seventeen of which lie on the River Fox.

From Menasha to the Green Bay docks,

With locks for boats there’s no rapids and rocks.

In a mere thirty miles, without these boating aisles,

and the locks' engineering wiles,

The river drops one hundred-seventy feet,

Making navigation an impossible feat.

Before the locks were constructed,

Gazing at the river made people’s locks stand erected.

For experiencing wild water was awe-inspiring and amazing,

But also frightening, alarming, and hair-raising.