The River...a ritual poem by Larry Smith

The River           


And we went down
boys and girls together

in our school clothes

along the smelly creek

all the way to the river.

Brambles and stones

beneath our feet,

we passed rails and mill gates.

And there we stood

looking out in silence

at the great river

too wide to swim across

though some might have tried

and drowned too young.

And our teacher stepped in

allowing her skirt to rise

to her hips like a cloud
with her inside, and

lifting her arms she beckoned

one by one to her side

where she blessed aloud

our baptism, not to God,

but to the waters,

and we the fish
that lived inside

and it inside of us,

"Forever and forever,"
 she simply said,

"You are one." 

And some laughed for joy

and some bowed their heads

and cried.

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