Note: Audio for this poem begins at 1:14
Sludge and Slash
Looking over a river, you gauge
its flow, moving inches, drinking
down your throat to your chest.
On the dock, someone dropped
a knife, so dark it remains to be
seen, unimaginable as a bitch
unleashed. If you look across
from here, water cuts miles
north, then west until it severs
the lake, and another—then,
a waterway, finally breaching
heartbeats that hover, embodying
the oceans of our saints—emotions
soaked through. Blue dragonflies
patrol here and protect us above
green sludge—and all that slash.*
*”Sludge and Slash” appeared previously in the author’s chapbook, Prayer’s Prairie, published June, 2025.
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Jan Wiezorek