-after Tarfia Faizullah’s I Told the Water
I told the rain you’re wise
to fall upon rich and poor
alike.
Told it your sleek silvery lines
streak the sky caress
our faces if only we’d look up.
You only exist because of our thirst
we think. But beneath your touch
we are all one.
The first time I was soaked to the skin
I peeled off my clothes and stood
under your sheath, your sluice,
your flow. My flesh
became fish, holding its shape
in your cool embrace. I knew then
how love was possible:
The urge to be subsumed within
the steady pulse of the beloved.
I knew then we’d search
all our lives to find your likeness
you silver-haired ensign you flag of pearl
of gray of argent.
Vivienne Popperl lives in Portland, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in Clackamas Literary Review, Timberline Review, Cirque, Willawaw, About Place Journal, and other publications. She was poetry co-editor for the Fall 2017 edition of VoiceCatcher. She received both second place and an honorable mention in the 2021 Kay Snow awards poetry category by Willamette Writers and second place in the Oregon Poetry Association’s Spring 2022 contest “Members Only” category. Her first collection, A Nest in the Heart, was published by The Poetry Box in April, 2022.
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