Water

Deborah Ager challenged her readers thusly:

...identify those themes, imagery, elements, phenomena that reappear in your life and/or dreams and/or writing.... Whatever it is, let this guide you to write the poem. Use the "thing" as your title.The poem is due one week from today....

I immediately thought back to my first friendly contact with an editor whose name I unfortunately forget. Old Hickory Review was in the process of folding, and therefore returning my submission, but she took time to read and comment on them, and she noted to me how prominent rivers and rain were in the (I think) 5 poems I sent her. A quick perusal of my portfolio 15 years later confirms that water in all many forms has indeed shown up a lot. More recently the recurring metaphors have involved hands, but that's another exercise.

So here, just 11 minutes late (I know, I know -- too literal, too literal), is my effort:

Water

Follow the water -
blessing from birth,
growing child of gravity -
do the souls it sustains
know their place in the line?
Do the lies it conceals
know the danger of depth?
In the absence of clouds
all the lakes lose their life,
In the hurricane's pounding
plenty, the same.
Follow the water,
like fear, like food,
a partner, a pretender,
a tool we always use,
a place we hate like home.