Doug Ramspeck

The Forgetful River

And now and now.
The muddy dream with its fallen ladder. 

Even the dim sky reflected. Come now:
we will wade up to our knees 

and feel the tug. And so the river speaks
in tongues and says, 

I cannot stop long enough
to dream you. 

And the river says,
No one who sings this song stays. 

This we understand. We want our
locomotive heartbeats. 

And so we have the discarded
snakeskin hours. 

My first memory
is of blood in a bathroom sink. 

My first memory is of bending
back my chin and gazing at a canopy 

of green. My first memory
is of a moon ensnared in the cyst 

of a cloud. Or I imagine I am walking
through such ruined gardens. Everything 

has withered and died. It is
an empire and an ache. 

And our minds listen.
And listening is translated into river.

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Doug Ramspeck is the author of ten poetry collections, two collections of short stories and a novella. His most recent book, Smoke Memories, received the Lena Shull Book Award. Individual poems have appeared in journals that include The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Slate, The Sun and The Georgia Review.