SHORING
I should tell you
I know this river
its bends
where rapids slow
which aits surface
& when
I was born on one side
my mother crossed over
& never came back
even after they took her first daughter
put her underground
The river spared me
I know
because I dreamed
I floated on abandoned timber
washed up on the wrong shore
Now the river greets me
says I love you & I believe it
its minerals the standard
against which I measure all softness
Once I was an otter & before that a pickerel
& before that the silt
that gathers between toes
Once I was a diver
now I’m a dam