We walk to the river. We discuss giving birth in outer space. We discuss giving birth. We say the most important thing to be this is to do that which means to eat peaches and sit by rivers. We eat strawberries instead. We repeat 18th century ideas about the importance of interiors. We discuss Rousseau. We discuss the Alps. We seem to always be talking about the 18th century. We wonder about chaises made of lawn. We call it the pedagogy of the chillaxin. We tell ten year olds about the bathroom habits of the fine ladies of Versailles. We make things that take a long time and prosper from warmness: yogurt, more yogurt, panne rustica, panne rustica again. We understand about comfort. We understand about love. We understand about preservation and also wish to preserve lemons as they do in many places and keep them in fine looking mason jars filled with oils. We understand about preservation and wish to get married, to buy a canary, to write many novels, to fill jars with coins. We wish literature were just a neat thing in the neat things people do and not such a separate thing from making breads and yogurts. We do not like that my job involves making other sorts of promises. We think the oil spill is in everyone's dream life. We are not afraid of softness but have no rugs.
FEARS THAT EXIST ON THIS RIVER
falling into the river
drowning in the river
swimming across the river
not being able to swim across the river
rape
babies falling into the river
children falling into the river
small animals falling into the river
our stuff falling into the river
too much trash in the river
the oil spill
heat stroke
bug bites
falling into a coal car
strangers
people taking off their clothes
going to work in the morning
death
THINGS THE RIVER SHOULD HAVE MORE OF
small animals floating on the uprooted trees
shade
a way to cross the rail yard
canoes and rafts
a wedding in the abandoned building
packs of cigarettes
On one side of the river we see trees up to their mid-level branches with rushing brown waters and on the others side of the river we see thistles, a shirtless man, sumac, a coal train, a great number of swallows, a smoking man, and bees. On one side of the river there is a racist part of the city where black people were told not cross the bridge and on the other side of the river there is the site of the great mafia wars. On both sides of where we sit on the river there are bridges, one big, one small. We think there are casinos on the river but cannot see them. Where we sit involves stairs that lead into the flood waters but once led into a platform, a mulberry tree, and a frayed metal rope.
