The River to Your Eyes
It flows both ways, the river to your eyes:
It flows in ways the viewer may suppose,
And then in ways the river only knows,
And to and fro a commerce goes of sighs.
The image we hallucinate - of love,
Compassion, understanding, warmth - but slides
Between embankments carved by wandering tides
And glitters viewed discreetly from above.
What rivers can we drink from, drown in, swim?
Lonely evolution's coarse triage
Selects a faith which favors some mirage
That keeps our madness vigorous and thin.
And so it goes, the river to your eyes:
An intercourse of meaning, meaning lies.
© 1998, Louis G. Ceci