Something Like Rivers Ran

This is the poem for which we named the blog. Cisneros' skill in evoking the poignant urgency of connection continues to be of unending inspiration.


undid the knot  the ribbons
    the silk flags of motion
unraveled from under

the flesh of the wrists
    the stone of the lungs
something like water

broke free the prayer
     of the heart
the grief of the hands

crooned sweet when
    you held me
dissolved knee into knee

belly into belly
     an alphabet of limbs
ran urgently

nudged loose a pebble
     a pearl
a noose undoing its greed

and we were Buddha
     and we were Jesus
and we were Allah

at once
    a Ganges absolving
language  woman  man

-Sandra Cisneros, from Loose Woman, copyright 1994


xo, Sadie