#katherena

by Katherena Vermette

this river is a woman she is bright and she is beautiful she once carried every nation here but she is one of those women too soon forgotten broken like a body that begs without words only rough hands that reach out palms up

this river is a woman she's been dredged and dragged metal coils catch her tangled hair everyone wants to know her secrets but she keeps them won't let them go unless she trusts you unless you ask real nice unless she just feels like it

this river is a woman she's full of good intentions bad regrets sometimes she just folds into herself can slow to a slush then rush into race currents indiscernible patterns intangible and below she goes even faster

this river is a woman forever returning twisting north a snake carved into prairie grass hiding everywhere eroded with age etched into her edges and newly born every day

this river is your lover she curls around you pulses and fills you like a heartbeat if you are very quiet all you hear is her

this river is your mother she flows on and on and unnoticed slips in slides out as if she was never here as if she was always here

this river is my sister and she is bright and beautiful and brown sings soft every summer holds us up all winter and every spring she swells reminds us we are just visitors here this is her country she is that woman her deft voice reaches out broken by everything that has been thrown into her but somehow her spirit rages on somehow a song like her never fades

by Katherena Vermette