Feeling My Hair Like The River Poem by Alizon Kiel

The turtles the water moccasins the algae blankets
The rocks where strangers struggle
The strangers reaching their hands to pull you up as you slip into the water and down into the water again
The children who ask me what I think of their swimming
My own son playing with two children whose life jackets match red and black
All adults mutually watching “our” children with the sun and the pink turned to red
The cliff and the jumping after
Men chasing childhood
Forgetting to hold their noses
Trusting the dark shadows promise - distinguishing depth from rock
Little dark caves and the ledge and the legend of a river risen and passing powerfully
Gradient lines in the rock
The peace stemming from there-is-no-raging today
We are glad for last week’s rain and our families at play

We come home and my hair is wet and smells of stone and the cool of the air conditioning and our little house like a cave and the beautiful fatigue falling against our couch and our wet shoes in the corner
The aloe clipped from our flower bed the insides the gel the coolness forgiving the sun
We sleep in smooth surrender my hair suspending a river’s ghost
I feel currents pull in little waterfalls and streams
I smell like the very earth and I am not ready for a shower