She Has Seen You

photographer: Georg Schmerholz

River has seen you.

She wants to wash over you
       pound against your rock hard precipice

       break you down into sand
       so she can keep you

       in her bed

This friction of sun scraping snowcaps

       makes a boiling runoff

       it widens her mouth

and she engulfs you

and you drink her in

       letting river’s wet love
       irrigate your flesh

       acequia capillaries soaking

       the most neglected fallow places

       that your own heart forgot

She has changed form and direction so many times

She is an infinite mobius strip of shapeshifting

           always earth’s blood

           yet constant in change
           and never the same

Make your hands bloody in delight

           plunge them into her depths
           and wipe them on new leaves and grasses

Make them shine

She will cover you in glistening foam
            loud and iridescent

River has heard you

           and answers in muffled sobs

The stillness of summer uncertainty

          makes her wonder if her love

                           will be replenished?
                           will she have enough?

                           will weather come?

Cloud circle continues

She has no choice but to love

Her wet body flows and journeys

                          fed by the sky
                          eaten by the ocean

                          filling your cup

River carries you

         watch your inner world float by

         travel with her to a holy land

Sift and find a treasure
                    a  shell

                    a smooth stone
                    a frogs egg

Dip you fingers in

Allow green tendrils to caress you
                                to tickle you

Pure energy is stored
         in her sunblanched hair

Swirling algae shelter
         to the unconscious and unformed

Invite these rocking swaying fronds

         to awaken in your hands

         the memory of something

         you have never known