Jessica Cogar

THE RIVER IS BEAUTIFUL BUT WHICH RIVER ARE WE TALKING ABOUT

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Ohio’s third season is deconstruction    as in:     what is being built will never be built       as in:  Ohio asks for my trust and I give it frequently     trust that spills          I ask Ohio what to do when a spill becomes a flow and it says leave me

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Do you know that the Iroquois call the Ohio river         a creek       that continuously spills/gives
I learn after that fact                          river is for things like     the Mississippi
                    that the Grand River is not big enough for its name

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                     that Ohio doesn’t even own most of its river.

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The Hockhocking is not a river either          bottle/gourd spill-flow that sings its beginning
I fail to the learn the song of waterfall           I ask Ohio to sing it again and it says we call it the
                                                                               Hocking now, the maps you’re reading are outdated.  

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And what of the river that oozes rather than flows        where one does not drown but decay
                  I ask Ohio what to do when a flow becomes an ooze and it says            Burn  

The crooked jawbone was river enough to burn      Cuyahoga cried and Ohio looked away, no need
                                                                                   to commemorate a second burning.

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I stand in the river of many fish and its water says     take     there is plenty   I ask this river what to call it and it says Home     as in: always enough            as in: no invitation necessary.   I go back to this river in winter and summer        there are signs that warn against eating its fish   

 

the river says              trust me

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                        the river feeds Ohio’s gods just fine           I am one of the beautiful river people     it does not matter which river I came from