Poetry Dare Day 18: Rivers

Rivers flow form a source,
with gravity, water has the weight
of earth and the stories of mountains, no wonder we
have so many terms to refer to the way
rivers talk. Maybe
they have so much to say
because water claims
too many lives, may-
be water talks because life sprang
first from the depths, and that's why
water
has so many stories to tell
about life's infancy like
a grandmother with more memories
than photos, more love than hugs, more
discipline than hair.
Next time you're by water
with movement enough to be confused
as speech, take a moment and listen to stories
about the mistakes you've made as adolescence
crept underneath your skin 'cause
water doesn't forget; it
flows and changes form, leaves
dirt like memories deposited on
windshields sometimes so thick it
is difficult to
see memories have this way
of staying in your brain
and exchanging shapes
as they move from grey of mind to red
of vocal chords in images and words, but
if they aren't shared, they
have this way of freezing
movement, after all, keeps heat up, so speak
like the water does when it babbles, speak
the secrets you hear from raving rapids, and
listen for how to flow into adulthood with the
power of water to
wash past, clean
future and keep
seeking the advice of earth
found speaking at river's side and
lapping tide.


Poems go in completely new directions sometimes - I mean that the way we begin to write a poem is not necessarily indicative of the way a poem will turn out. We never know where a poem will end up. Rivers seem to be like this. Except that they all end up somewhere at least.