Paul Muldoon

 

 

The River Is a Wave

 

The river is a wave that never breaks

though it may briefly surge

as it edges its way out of that three-mile long lake

in which it’s managed to submerge

 

its ever so slightly diminished sense of hurt.

The river is a wave that never breaks

despite such fitful spurts

of “enthusiasm.” Let’s say, for argument’s sake,

 

that if it follows in its own wake

to satisfy an imperfectly remembered urge

the river is a wave that never breaks

but is forever on the verge

 

of confronting an issue it’s inclined to skirt

since it’s only the sea, with its incomparable ache,

that may categorically assert

the river is a wave that never breaks.

 

 

 

Devorah Baum

Sven Birkerts

Ferris Jabr

Zephyr Teachout