There Must Be a Moment

Published in Eclipse Literary Journal   (Summer 2013)

There must be a heart beat when it happens.
Like cancer.
Like life.
One moment, one cell.

I look for it,
geographer
searching my Nile’s mouth
twisted with regret.

Probing tongue
exploring the pain
because just finding the source
might relieve the aching.

You splash about,
say the water is fine,
and I love you for it
more than you will ever know,

but brace for your inevitable discovery.
I am the river,
carrying down from a forgotten source
the bodies of those who have drowned in me.