day SIX HUNDRED and FIFTY ONE

Water is a Woman

water is a woman see how she fits
into whatever vessel you devise for her
watch her overflow
watch her evaporate away
you must vacuum seal her
to keep her tight in your jar

watch her grow green and brown
with primordial life, with algae
watch the amoeba bloom of her surface
soon she becomes murky with life
she cannot help but bear fruit
concocting children is her day job
and everything needs her

water is a woman look how she persists
corrosive and tenacious above everything
her carving the Ozark caves deep
across the southwest plateau
her body is a canyon of flood and rush
she pours herself downstream

relentless as hunger
graceful as mercy
she doesn’t take the high road
she takes the path of least resistance

watch her stay low
and curving always with the hips of the land
the cliffs open to her as she angles her way home
always home to the great source
the shared genesis of life
ocean and current and womb

a woman is an ocean look how vast
she persists against the rat tooth of shore
in small swells and carousing squall
thrusting a legion of hurricanes
she cannot be moved, really
by any whim but her own

water is a woman in blue and clear
neither a dark cloud or a silver lining
but something yearning to fall
each drop of her rain
each catapulting globe is a perfect
reflection of the entire world

-- Jeanette Powers