poem
Volume 22, Number 1

No Cell Mine Long

If it is true
till they stop, or
water cycles
enhancements;
if it is true
regard this:
through the open window
except (accept)
slowly.
made of cells,
perspiration,
fill the bowls
So drink it in
of water awhile
and marshland
then empty,
it's only for now;
ever is it moving;
our cells renew
even if it is not;
like Lance Armstrong
if it is true
we do not
water in a glass
as easily
more slowly.
It will wander
made of water, awhile
respiration,
of your bowels
slowly, wander
before you leave them—
canals and sewer pipe,
the dry creek that floods.
you cannot keep
even the icecaps

as

if

life
every seven years,
if it is true
with or without
we reincarnate;
reincarnate, regardless,
can leave
as a fly enters,
Drink it now,
your corridors
then leave you—
tears, spit,
then empty.
these corridors
the lakes
the ponds that fill,
Here, pick a vessel;
water for-
flex flux. It's
was no
the same it was?
except (accept)
Seas dry;
we think,
Dam it!
The weather man
turbulence.
seven years, but
ice)—
so long as we
thing—
What law
the tides?
rivers slip round boundaries;
but it doesn't stop us
Is there nothing
says rain.
The prophet says
it is just
water; and we
in these cells
What piece of your self
holds water
Never mind.
Boundaries!
thinking.
we can bank on?
The pilot says
seven years, then
(just-
will only keep it
are kept.


—Jennifer Sperry Steinorth