As Above
We drew from the river’s mouth and
It screamed at us.
We didn’t know why.
When we drank, it turned our mouths dark, ugly.
Turned our mouths tar and
Forced them into forever widened gapes.
The openings like black holes we were
Never supposed to create for ourselves.
The next time,
We drew from the river’s mouth and
It reached out to grab us
Yanking arms out of socket with heavy stream,
Jagged branch stretching skin open
Blood now dying the bed a darker blue…
Maybe we purified it,
Maybe it purified us.
We didn’t know why.
The last time,
We drew from her and then she
Drew from us taking hold this time
Drowned us, our tar-muffled screams
Unhappening in the water
Hardened bodies dead in the water
Purification in the water,
She drank all of us,
Crooked, cold fingers made branches we should have
Went away from.
And after the tar,
After the bodies,
After all of us became none at once,
After water filled our souls and made them
Its own,
They drew from me.
And I screamed at them: Don’t
They didn’t know why.
Instagram: @poetic.jones