Rivers, a new poem from Neeli Cherkovski
RIVERS
For Nina Serrano
Sad to miss those
Crumbling riverbanks of the Yuba
Or the runic roar of
The Snake River
Up in Idaho
Eggs in the frying pan
Over dry branches
By the wet boulders
Caressed in circles of
Swift water
Strike a Diamond brand match
And life begins anew
It’s all I have now
As the last light edge
Past a green hummingbird
On Bernal Hill
My deck is a cabin in the woods
The dog Orion at my feet
Attacking a twig
Low growl as parts
Of the world burns
to a crisp ruin
Rivers run over me
In this season of drought
I remember the Rhine
At its low point
And crossing the bridge
In Prague under the
Castle and Saint Vitus
Judy says Jorge Luis Borges
Is difficult, his Spanish
Rushes as we tread
But in Neruda the river
Turns into a red sunset
Over stinging American ice
Rivers and poets
Poems and memories
Prove this breeze miraculous
The rivers true
You decide
Why this river
Comes to divert us
From the cause
Why the old people
Fall into tributaries
Why words turn simple
Or complex
And forever before us
Like Orion’s Belt
Over a darkening earth
And how poets are
Moving, their swift aim
Caught in an under-song
Of desire and pride
I adore the common sound
Of rivers and
The empty gratitude
They engender
As drought plagues
The art of love
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