Written with love in light of misplaced hopes.
Runoff
Tepid are the streams
that brought us here
from God knows where
- c o o l i n g -
thousands of years
from their port of entry
- journeying lost -
through earthen
cardboard cutouts
- e n g r a i n e d -
settled into centuries’ clay
- w h a t e a s e -
to step soul first into
history’s shared waters
- w h a t c a l m -
to risk nothing new
- w h a t l o s s -
to gulp
to gag
to drown
to float
to do all but show any
splashing sign of resistance
- d o n’ t s t i r -
lest temperatures rise
and trade the feet that
walk upon the waters
for the tug of current tides.
So creative; loved the imagery!
Woah dude. This is killer. Fill me in more! What was the inspiration? The ending really strikes me and I also got some images of immigrants through the middle (cardboard cutouts, settled, port of entry...). I really dig it.