Jennifer Lighty
Confessional
There is no past tense
for falling water.
And no way to go back:
only round. Clouds swell
and let go of edges
they aren't aware of.
Waterfalls bomb down gulches,
funneled by flat land
that gives way to get
what it wants, slowing
the water with its curves
to feed the roots
so trees can lift their leaves
to the clouds. If the river
ends in the ocean,
it’s impossible to say
where a raindrop goes,
but I still want to say it,
as if syllables could absolve me
from what came after
I took off my clothes at the waterfall.
Reader, I don’t want to need you
to witness my shame any more.
The river has overflowed
its banks many times
since I stepped in.
Please accept this gardenia
opening to the rain
whose scent saw me through
afternoons I believed
it would never stop falling.
Jennifer Lighty writes poetry, prose and fiction on Block Island, RI; teaches workshops at The Block Island Poetry Project and was recently named the 2014 Merit Fellow in Poetry by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. www.wildblockisland.blogspot.com
Return to January 2014 Edition
There is no past tense
for falling water.
And no way to go back:
only round. Clouds swell
and let go of edges
they aren't aware of.
Waterfalls bomb down gulches,
funneled by flat land
that gives way to get
what it wants, slowing
the water with its curves
to feed the roots
so trees can lift their leaves
to the clouds. If the river
ends in the ocean,
it’s impossible to say
where a raindrop goes,
but I still want to say it,
as if syllables could absolve me
from what came after
I took off my clothes at the waterfall.
Reader, I don’t want to need you
to witness my shame any more.
The river has overflowed
its banks many times
since I stepped in.
Please accept this gardenia
opening to the rain
whose scent saw me through
afternoons I believed
it would never stop falling.
Jennifer Lighty writes poetry, prose and fiction on Block Island, RI; teaches workshops at The Block Island Poetry Project and was recently named the 2014 Merit Fellow in Poetry by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. www.wildblockisland.blogspot.com
Return to January 2014 Edition