the still

And then all at once

We lurched to a stop

Abruptly and not without pain

The curtains were thrown 

open and wide

And the darkness behind which

We hid is now light

The fears that we drowned

In liquor and work

Have escaped from their bottle

And we find ourselves here

Standing at the river

Now clear and still

She has erased

the steel taste of boats

We stand at her bank

facing ourselves and 

the pain we have caused her

Our pace slows

There is nowhere to be

And nowhere to go

And the river is still

Your hurry dissolves

Our breath becomes deep

And the river is calm

Maybe this won’t last

In fact, I know that it won’t

Our pace will once again quicken

and novels abandoned

for haste and afternoon meetings

The boats will once again cloud

the water with fumes

the air will again groan

with the cry of their horns

Children will go back

to class and forget

that long ago once

we paused and were still

But here now I sit 

on the bank of the river

and breathe

It’s quite something to see

That there’s nowhere to go

And nowhere to be

But here

standing at the river

now still and clear

My breath becomes deep

Perhaps this won’t last

In fact, I know that it won’t

But for a strange little moment

There is nowhere to be

And nowhere to go

And the river is still