qarrtsiluni

Today it’s a long way to the river
dragging two large boxes
I don’t remember buying
but addressed to me, all right.
I drop them over the railing knowing
a splash will billow sure as night
closes the mall, sure as lambs
follow tails through the gate
the way hope limped into this century
from the last, the one I learned by,
now flown like a gull’s cry over two boxes
moving down river who knows where. Maybe
halfway across the world they’ll find castaways
grateful for toasters, cell phones,
tall skim lattes, a case of the blues;
something they can really use.

Kate Irving

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