THE RIVER
By Ryan James Wilson
 

If we were ever to reach the river

again, I would recognize you.

The birds would dive back into their eggs.
 

The echoes of thousands of years

would hush and be wrapped

within the soft pink blankets of the first silence.
 

The tree-tops would crawl down,

ashamed of their ridiculous heights,

and be cradled within one tiny seed.
 

Then I would recognize you.

By the river, freed of life’s overgrown shadows,

there I would know you.
 

Together we could name the world,

and our infant words would be pacified

by sucking on the tender truth of things.
 

You have come to me a stranger.

I will let you guide me back

to the point where we began –
 

To the point when we were the closest.
 

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RYAN JAMES WILSON is a recent graduate of The University of Georgia. He currently lives and writes in Athens, GA.