The Power of Water
Rent from DeepDyve- The Power of Water
In the evening grandfather came,an empty spirit from a far place.In this old country, he was underthe earth, held down with a stone.
Grandmother cried as she workedmilking the cows, turning them into [End Page 130] the meadow, carrying the pailsof milk on an oxbow over her neck.
On hot afternoons I swam in the pondsupported by water which held mewhen I wanted to be held and I kneweven then it would let me sink
when it was time to sink.The church commanded us.We obeyed. It was stoneand wood and not the soft
lap of water where we wereforbidden to go. On summerevenings the air was thickwith singing insects and
water held the last of the sun,a mirror of silver broken bythe leap of a fish into twilightfalling back into itself.
I wanted then not to bethe muddy creature grandfather becameor the milky stooped grandmothercaught between two galvanized pails.
I wanted then to leap,to rise up out of what was,to leap into twilight,to fall back into my true self. [End Page 131]
Helen Ruggieri has had work published in the Anthology on Grief: Beloved on the Earth (Holy Cow!) and From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright (Lost Hills Books) as well as in Minnesota Review, Cream City Review, and Labor: Studies in Working-Class History. [ED: Changes OK?]
