O mercy how it rolls and rolls, but a river is
not the sea with its serpents and undulations tugging
you under and beneath the self you swam from and the river is
not a pond, that puddle of your soul exploded
and stretched across tethered earth
furrowed beside a farmhouse; it is
not a lake, this river of you,
not that silver-blue reflection of clouds and sky
lapping at your body, your conscience, slapping
at a grassy shore with inlets and piers,
punctuated Saturdays with pontoons
crowded with tourists sightseeing the breeze;
streaked Mondays with what we abandon
in old rowboats, splintered and waiting; O mercy
mercy, a river is not even
a creek—that teen of itself—or a brook,
the infant babe that won’t stop babbling-babbling
over hill, over dale all the way
to some dead grandmother’s house we sail
our way to between thick trees
in the dark woods of childhood. O
God Almighty, a river is not
and is
twisting and warm, frozen and thin,
parched and cracking; a river is
greedily overflowing, filled full with rush
and current, with what flips and squirms,
a river is a river
is a river is
a river is and this and also you
between pebbles and dying leaves,
striped bass and trout, crayfish and catfish,
water snakes and those diving
bell spiders a river is a river
is otters and alligators a river is
more and less and you and you
and you a river, is world and prayer,
sanctuary and song; O mercy,
mercy, mercy afterlife and conception
floating us to here where the river is
and keeps on rolling, rolling,
rolling back to me and we
on the sea that the river is
not.
Commonwealth University Professor Emerita of English, Marjorie Maddox has published 17 collections of poetry, including How Can I Look It Up When I Don’t Know How It’s Spelled?; Seeing Things; Hover Here (forthcoming), Small Earthly Space; Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For; and In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind (w/daughter Anna Lee Hafer, a 2023 Dragonfly Book Award in fine arts and American Fiction Winner Award in poetry). Maddox also has published a story collection, 4 children’s books, and the anthologies Common Wealth and Keystone Poetry (forthcoming w/Jerry Wemple). Assistant editor of Presence, she hosts WPSU’s Poetry Moment. www.marjoriemaddox.com
