Animas, and lost souls

The story seemed to be about rivers at first glance, then the reader recognizes a deeper layer, then another.  By the time the poet, finished his talk he had them wondering just what was it all about.
Afterwards, at the booksigning, a woman approached the author and asked him, to sign her copy, she had
since three years and even then she told him she found it at a used bookstore off the Rhine, a cafe bookstore where she spent most afternoons, that summer abroad.   She asked him to dinner at her family home near Lake Ponchatran.