Day Fourteen

Title: because no matter how thin the river gets

In that same Latin American Literature class I blogged about on Day Three, we read one of the most beautiful short stories I've come across. The Third Bank of the River, by João Guimarães Rosa. Seriously. I've read a lot of short stories. This one blows the others away. Because you're going to go out, find an anthology, and read the story, I'm not going to give too much away. What you need to know is that there is a father and a son. Father rows out on the river one day and doesn't return. But, he doesn't disappear, either. He just stays out on the river for years and years and years, while son stands on the riverbank, calling to him.

For this poem, I took on the voice of the son.

I'm sad to say this poem got cut from my thesis (*sniff, sniff*). It's one of my favorites, but it didn't fit thematically with the collection. I've had to cut some of my best poems for that very reason. Damn themes. Someday, they'll see the light of day again...

***

Elegy

because your row boat is singular
because I am your son
because your hand on my head is a blessing
because you row and row and row
because your hand on my head is goodbye
because I am waving to you as you
float farther, farther into the river

because you have not come back
because you have not gone far
because the rains will come soon
and the river will flood
because your old, brown hat
because I have only sad things to say

because you are not a ghost
because sometimes I see you
as a speck on the river’s longitude
because I worry you will drown out there
because it has been years

because you must need new oars by now
because no one worries for you anymore
because you are old
because you are still rowing

because this year there is drought
because no matter how thin the river gets
you will always be buoyed to another shore

because I will always be standing here
calling for you

because I am the third bank of this river