Reaching Forever. Philip C. Kolin

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ sun-shallow days

      you can hear the rocks

      coffined in sludge

      and slime cry to heaven —

      sinners who hoarded

      wealth and wrath.

      A stillness finally seals the pond —

      heaven’s last incarnation

      for those who forgo mortality.

      Reading Ponds

      A retired businessman, escaped

      from his scheduled life,

      trolls in yellow waders through

      the braille letters the pond writes

      for a country of clouds,

      a message he cannot read.

      A spinster—silk tulip

      in her straw hat—sighs

      for the lovers she never had,

      and tosses a stone into the pond.

      Do the circles call to her,

      or does she call to them?

      Convent hymns fill the pond

      with prayers and petitions

      as a novice in her late twenties

      looks into it as in a mirror.

      A fish ripples her images—

      a confirmation she is losing

      her pride or a warning

      about taking final vows?

      A flock of mallards passes overhead.

      Perhaps the pond weeps as they pass;

      or are they trapped in the long silence

      that quiets them over the horizon?

      The Mississippi River Talks about the Book of Genesis

      I was born in Genesis. My father, the great domed sea, made me so the moon could preen over my currents and give the stars a place to sparkle.

      I am wiser than the callow land that seeps through me in its race to the Gulf of Tears where the souls of sinners go.

      Fickle winds may scribble cuneiforms on me, genealogies of suicides and skeptics. But I outlast these winds, truants to tranquility, loose tongues tattling variegated tales.

      My children, who preserve the world before time was counted, have now been parceled into seasons. Gar, gators, turtles, cottonmouths, bullheads, raptors, cormorants, and sliders.

      I paint rippling murals on shorelines, swamps and lowlands, backwaters, oxbow lakes, coves, and eyebrow-shaped islands. My colors crawl, swim, and fly.

      Brackish muskrats and wide-toothed otters; mussels and mud-speckled trout; snowy egrets, little blue herons, red-tailed hawks—all know my voice, and I theirs.

      When the world ends, I will still hover over the Deep.

      The Fugitive River

      It goes where it has to. No shores

      shackle it. This river keeps its beginnings secret

      and its ends. Like the moon it may be full

      and silvery with fish, or a slivered crescent

      following a fleeting raft. But always

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

/9j/4RgBRXhpZgAATU0AKgAAAAgABwESAAMAAAABAAEAAAEaAAUAAAABAAAAYgEbAAUAAAABAAAA agEoAAMAAAABAAIAAAExAAIAAAAgAAAAcgEyAAIAAAAUAAAAkodpAAQAAAABAAAAqAAAANQAHoSA AAAnEAAehIAAACcQQWRvYmUgUGhvdG9zaG9wIENTNS4xIE1hY2ludG9zaAAyMDE5OjAyOjAxIDE0 OjA5OjUxAAAAAAOgAQADAAAAAQABAACgAgAEAAAAAQAABXigAwAEAAAAAQAACDQAAAAAAAAABgED AAMAAAABAAYAAAEaAAUAAAABAAABIgEbAAUAAAABAAABKgEoAAMAAAABAAIAAAIBAAQAAAABAAAB MgICAAQAAAABAAAWxwAAAAAAAABIAAAAAQAAAEgAAAAB/9j/7QAMQWRvYmVfQ00AAf/uAA5BZG9i ZQBkgAAAAAH/2wCEAAwICAgJCAw

СКАЧАТЬ