Velocity

A poem for America

Photo by unknown photographer taken below ogee spillway, Dam No. 10, on the Mississippi River, near Guttenberg, Iowa (National Archives, circa 1935-37).

Velocity

These are not lines 
about friendship. 

These are lines 
about the river rising, 

scarcity, what my 
neighbor does when 

he needs what I have, 
what family becomes 

when there’s not enough 
to go around. These, 

I’m afraid, are lines 
about the riverbank 

sliding into the river. 
Silt, runoff, erosion.

The river’s velocity, 
like want, like need, 

is difficult to predict.