Breathe, July 2022, Issue #26
Mason-Dixon: The Cost of Cotton (visual art) and Descendant (poem)

Snake River

The river runs red with salmon.
My river runs red,
fertile drops that spread
through a tapestry of months.

Snake River telescoped reveals
a swim upstream against backwash,
the leaps,
the eyes tearless,
the noises of so few
unheard.

This year the count of one male
and one female
draws a bead through the gun sight of my mind.
So many eggs spawned,
washed downstream.

Whispery are the thoughts I cancel
that this is
may be
the last run of salmon
through the mouth of my stream.

Image title: Birth Mother

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving

Enter naked
Do not cover your growling bowels
or the incarnate ache of groinal desire
your vaginal vérité

Enter into His gates
the well where waters rise
A bamboo shaft
cups buttermilk to your lips

Womb’s tectonic shift births you
in a tidal wave of moans
you wail your lost home
of muscle and bone

Orange and coconut fall
unbidden
Exit as you entered
from the waterwell
naked breastless untethered

Image title:
At the Well of Divine Intervention