BROKEN PORT Poem by Andrea Cote

If you knew that outside the house
tied to the bank of this broken port
there is a river burning
just like the sidewalks.

That when it touches the ground
it's like a desert tumbling down
and it brings lighted up grass
so that it goes up the walls,
even though you come to believe
that the wall disturbed by the creepers
is a miracle of humidity
and not of the ashes of the water.

If you knew
that the river is not of water
and does not bring ships
or logs,
only little algae
grown on the breast
of sleeping men.

If you knew that this river flows
and that it is like us
or like all that sooner or later
will have to sink in the earth

You don't know,
but sometimes I've seen it
it is part of those things
that when going away
seem to stay on.