The River

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01/ when a river is not a river

02/ it transcends to metaphor, to elaborate currents of water channeled downstream, past the river’s source of Myth, of Unknown, of Question

03/a blank notebook is a river unto itself— the absence transcending the perimeters of the page

04/ even a dead rat snake mirrors the flow, the shape of a river overrunning its banks

05/ or the flood trails winding throughout our bodies, the red rivers within

06/ into a warm muddy river they took him—“this was your life,” they said

07/ on bridges across nameless rivers, fishermen always leave small mementos of themselves: a rusty hook, skeleton remains of unwanted fish, tangled fishing line, wrappings of a half-eaten sandwich—

08/ handsome young fathers chasing their sons and daughters on the sides of rivers

09/ there is a moment caught between insomnia and deep sleep—when one is neither awake nor dreaming, just floating in a river of between

10/ there is a moment suspended in casual time: the milliseconds hovering over a child, before it draws in the first lungful of air, before it is plunged bodily into the ammonia-river of life

11/ from the courtyards of the orphanages, blood red kites fly by the banks of nearby rivers

12/ cluster of minnows dart in the shallows of a summer river, constant motion, constant flux

13/ a dry riverbed runs beneath the city’s cemetery

14/ the metaphor of a river transcends to a dry river bed

15/ the river of your life cannot be calculated

16/ the first time the child was held and carried into the Gulf, it felt lost in its life, the broadness of the blue-gray horizon always just out of reach

17/ he views his life as a river on fire

18/ of this river, peel back the surface layer to reveal the Hidden, the Unseen

19/ she dreams of crawling across the surface tension of a nearby reservoir, following the source of the underground river, releasing her life to the elements

20/ she dreams of wolves running in winter alongside a river of ice, their breath steaming

21/ she dreams the river is her father, muddy tones to his every word,

22/ thick ooze of river-bottom mud still caked in his hair, stains of earth coating his thighs and arms

23/ the symbol of the river transcends to social commentary— a flooding of contradictory opinions, riots in the streets

24/ drowning out the ruins of an ancient city built along the river banks

25/ a river of anguish,
a river of fears,
a river of language,
a river of incomprehension,
a river of silence,
a river of resistance,
a river of intolerance,
a river of acceptance,
a river of prayer,
a river of repetition,
a river of possibilities,
a river or memory,
a river of rationalities

26/ just beneath this layer of ice, the river current still motions

27/sometimes there is no river

28/ the still surface of the non-river simply exists—nonmoving