~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Dwaine Rieves

Sediment

they taught us              the Mississippi starts

with raindrops sweeping          loose heartland soil

into wild tumble           before uniting again

within the stream’s plunge       a reunion in power

cutting across this                   dirty earth as we figured

all power must             cut until we felt some other

testy                forces at work among

moments                     when a river

widened                                within us

to reveal a darkness                some bad nature roiling

amidst all the good                  we wanted to believe

this world was              more than any dirty river

that’s always flowing               with worry

or any feeling               that might leave our fears shushing

between           the state we grew up in

and all those others      we pictured better

power much as within us          power

personalizes a grit                     that settles only once

doubt’s slithering wake turns and moonlight

falls on this                  soiled surface

this beautiful power      they taught us

to feel as if feeling                    itself

might bring us              closer to its maker

Dwaine Rieves is a medical imaging scientist from Smithville, MS. His collection, When the Eye Forms, won the Tupelo Press Prize for Poetry.