The River Is Some Time To Kill Without Warning

it has eyes
like vials of poison
in the back of its head
that is why I looked at it
when I should have really been
tending goats
doing something else
my arms went sore
until I walked with a limp
one kiss was all
it took
one kiss cold as silver dollars
holding down the eyelids
like two carpenter's measures
steady as fish
the sound of not just lead in my shoulders
righting themselves with a thirst
in my garden there in no more plowing
in my rooms there is no more sleeping
I straddled the roof I hid
the keel of a ship the river hauled me under
it was like an afternoon
you lay out a blanket for
a harpooned whale waiting for the moon
to sink
when I smelled it
I had all day
when it was time to leave
it said 0 Cisco

© Ginny Stanford