I want to become the river
gentle flow and torqued undertow
cold bed of silt and sand
warm and gentle in the shallows
even golden when sun filters through
to the smooth pebbles
and empty shells
dark where
creatures
whose eyes deep and full
stay open reflecting
like scales
travelling both fast and slow
replenished by the rain
feeding the trees along the bank
where their roots secretly plunge
to find me
I’ll carry the sibyl’s leaves
to the ocean and send them out
—
Miranda Lynn Barnes is a poet from the USA now living near Nottingham, England. She is the author of the pamphlet Blue Dot Aubade (V. Press, 2020) and Formulations (Small Press/Tangent Books, 2022) a chapbook of new poetic forms based in chemistry, co-authored with Stephen Paul Wren. Miranda’s poems are published widely in journals and anthologies in the UK and abroad. Her poem “In the Pines” won 2nd place in the Verve Poetry Competition 2023.
