What alarmed you, O sea, that you fled?
River Jordan, that you ran backward?
— Psalms 114:5
After the thrill-flash in the storm-dark,
chant-count your prayers, a child’s wish
for crash-boom:One Mississippi, two
Mississippi, three… rhythmic until the measured
truth cracks, redounding in glass panes,
floorboards, and our bones the epiphany of an eye,
a storm, a blink of a mile or five, or one too distant
for danger.Nature runs its course:
The Gulf Stream is warm and swift,
birds migrate, you age, loved ones die,
matter cannot be created or destroyed,
the Ol’ Man flows south to the delta
until it doesn’t.Until Ida runs
its course into the ground, and your dead
splash all around you, laughing.
Click here to read Pamela Wax on the origin of the poem.
Image:Photo by Brian Sumner on Unsplash, licensed under CC 2.0.
- The Mighty Mississippi, August 29, 2021 - May 31, 2022
- Nacre - September 7, 2021