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I don’t remember her
name
the one who died
or the man who saw a girl chase a leaf
into the current
and followed her
this is how a girl drowns a man
her ropy arms clasping his neck
she drags him down
these are disappearances
Georgia’s body found in a field of dry grass
at the end of July
the hit and run boy
we planted a plum tree for in the fifth grade
this is how we marked time
body by body
a river moves
that is its nature
its method
it’s nothing personal
finding yourself in that river
is a ghost act
and almost always your own fault
from far away the river shines in a brown line
across the landscape
but if you take it into your hands
the water is clear
it is autumn
and the trees have begun to lose
their leaves
the girl, blue-lipped
all the color drawn from
her skin, floats there
in a still pocket
I did not see her dead
honest
I saw her alive
she was watching cartoons that afternoon
lying on the shag carpet
propped up on her elbows
eating a government surplus cheese sandwich
a can of coke cupped between her small hands
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there were freeways between us
lines of lights between us
rivers of traffic and rivers of rails
and then just the river between us
dry yellow fields and pastures between us
fields cut into neat agricultural squares
barbed wire and wood posts between us
there were rows of stakes and vines and insecticide between us
people stooped over the rows upon rows of vines
and their rough dry hands and the sun beating down on them
sweat and dust buried in their skin
and when the rain came
there was run off, silt streaming into the waters
poison between us
in the air and in the ground and in the water between us
and the gravel roads winding
through the fields and past the river
to the open face of this continent of our splintered existence
there were dark birds circling in the pockets of air between us
there were words thrown against the wind burnt cliffs
and also words we could not speak
until all we were left with was this word
between, between, between
of the words meant to connect one thing to another
of the words meant to explain what things
what people are
to each other
how one object relates to another
we chose the word between
and held it like a blade
and it made us feel brave, it made us feel solitary
and therefore strong
and therefore safe
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