After the drought
The river took
Back everything.
– James Galvin (“Child’s Play”)
When it comes to understanding,
we like shortcuts, give them names,
or better yet, another acronym
to memorize, to fall off our tongues
as if they mean something new
to this old planet circling the sun—
as if we haven’t time enough to pull
away from our frivolous business
to find the melody of syllables.
The long vowels of CIA & FBI
punctuate abruptly, like gunshots—
say no more! But after the flood
has cleaned out the banks,
we start over with a new slate
to make our marks upon—restringing
fences across old channels, we try
once more to make them easy to repair,
hold cattle and let the words flow.
drycrikjournal 