Like A River

Peggy Hammond

That angry word hits hard,
cracks the sidewalk
between us; your eyes
flash a warning, say
there’s more
where that came
from. But what if
there was a cool
stream between us,
babbling, urging
tenderness, even
if for a second?
You could dip in
a toe, just to test,
maybe wade to
your knees and feel
the slip of smooth
stones under your feet,
forget
we are different, reach
for my hand.
I’d take it. I’d walk
right in, waist deep
before I thought
twice. That division,
that split, forgotten.
Listen, this brook
gurgles and laughs;
if you let it,
it drowns out
all the anxious words
of man.

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Author’s Bio: It seems we are daily confronted with news of verbal altercations that turn to physical violence, and it is wearying.  I wrote this poem as a small plea to slow down and think before erupting into a squabble or worse. I used the image of a river because it's hard to imagine anyone remaining angry when standing beside water flowing over rocks; for me that's always a soothing experience. 

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Peggy Hammond’s recent poems appear or are forthcoming in The Blue Mountain Review, Thin Air Magazine, Thimble Literary Magazine, Olit, Club Plum, UCity Review, Heimat Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, River & South Review, The Paper Crow, Jarfly Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a Best of the Net nominee and the author of The Fifth House Tilts (Kelsay Books, 2022). Learn more at https://peggyhammondpoetry.com/.