The Ancient Modern
Apprentice / Joshua Alan Sturgill
your eyes the wide
green river if
under the weight of age
the ancient tree leans out
and in Summer, petals, or
in Autumn, ochre leaves
fall to the wide
green river when
your shoulders, Orion’s
bearing the sky
drawing forever the arrowed bow
over night’s lime and shale
my hands then my eyes, my mouth
search slowly
hidden stones in the wide
green river who
will we be when you die?
under the water
of beginning if
we do not drink, we drown