Today's poem is Foot Bridge Over the Passy; One Million Shades by Etta Iris. It is read by Julia Bouwsma.
Foot Bridge Over the Passy; One Million Shades
See—Below this cement;
These stones lifting me—There,
the water is casting shadows over
and over itself; White-grey etched
upon with blue-grey and moving,
moving, the patterns of dark—
Black, perhaps, but really—
Transparent; You can see—
Down.
Listen—Behind the cars rushing—
High on that bridge—Route 1 disappearing
into the mist; they push past,
no pause, overpowering most—But, still;
The birds, the wind, the slowed footsteps
of those people with their eyes
Open.
Understand—underneath the speed,
the hatred, the greed—What is forgotten
is not always lost:
The wood, green with chemicals
still harbors barnacles—Still shows grain;
Still whispers of life. In that field—
Beside the highway—There was
a factory (potatoes) humming
But it went up in smoke and now—
It is a field of clover; Green
and white and growing through
the Rain.
Think—Through the blackness
because—Like shadows on this brackish river
the dark is sometimes what allows us to
See—and then, like the barnacles,
we can fight. And like the clover,
we can grow. And like the water,
we can be a million things
at the same time, we can love—
and even if it breaks our hearts
and we cry from the mist
like the seagull we must remember:
the earth is standing with us—
Carrying us—
In her every breath
So that we can have this moment
and, perhaps,
the Next.