which existed before & will exist after
though Homo sapiens will not
allow it (often) to flow to the sea
but this is an apology to the barren
delta—mud flat & species-abandoned
Growing up in the high desert
I partook of the waters
so one could say
the river is me, I carry it
& when I look in the mirror
Narcissus incarnate
Running dry is not just supply
& demand, it’s the fallacy of keeping:
see how the river when you hold
it cupped in your hand slips
through like time
it leaves & it leaves
This poem first appeared in TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics.
—
Lynn Pedersen’s poems have appeared in New England Review, Ecotone, Nimrod, Borderlands, and The Southern Poetry Review. She is the author of The Nomenclature of Small Things (Carnegie Mellon) and two chapbooks. A graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia. www.lynnpedersen.com
