Dragging the River
Knowing the truth of it, he marvels
at the red grape’s resiliency,
how it contains itself even after
a fall. What matters, what doesn’t.
Those simplistic thoughts
dissipating in the coffee’s sad
swirl. And what they wanted,
truly wanted, even more than
that first plunge of lips to private
flesh or the forbidden highlights
in the book of dreams never to
be opened. He looks over the side,
but can’t divine the message
in the brown ripples. A wine bottle
bobs by, followed by an inflated vest
and two snarled branches. Everything
revealed in its time.
* * *
“Dragging the River” first appeared inMay 2019 in The Elixir Magazine out of Yemen.
O at the Edges 
I’ve been gone for a while, but I’m trying to to catch up on your works. Your writing really inspires me. It’s very calming and gives me a sense of peace.
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Thank you! You have helped make the first day of the new year a great one!
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Writers or poets or just literature folk in general have to lift each other up. And your writing is truly incredible
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You are very kind. I find it easier to spread the word on what I like rather than what I don’t like. 🙂
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The riddles of tasseomancy.
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If only life could be so easily divined!
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I like to read this as seven stanzas, each sentence a stanza in its own right, divided by periods. An alternative structure to reverberate with the first. An alternate reality.
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I like your alternate reality, Gary. A different flow, so to speak. Thanks!
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You are great at poetry. You combine depth and simplicity so seamlessly together.
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Thank you. You are very kind.
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This is incredible sir
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You’re very kind. Thank you very much.
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