2 September 2003 | Vol. 3, No. 3

Six Billion and the River

I was once told the infant's eye

is able to drink water

from a curved leaf in China,

and when they sleep,

birds catch their lashes

and use them to build nests

that never fall.


*


There must be some way to open

the navel, to let the world and all

its memories be sucked in

to the spine, to pull apart

the ribcage and hang

the lungs from branches,

let the wind sing them dry.


*


They say the queen had the Mexican moon

in her movem