Mary Morris

Raft

There is an atlas inside your body—

a certain instinct toward discovery
that desires nothing in return.

How did we arrive at this refuge, listening
to questions in another language?

How did they descend to this shelter
with a different view of the same

water, this room opening its doors
into the sapphired space before them—

temples below, not nearly as ancient
as this smoking volcano?

One might drink tiny fits of dreams
from cups painted cobalt blue

and citron, sip coffee brewed from beans
grown in their own country

while others hang on
to a splintered raft drowning. 

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Mary Morris is the author of three books of poetry: Enter Water, Swimmer (runner-up for the X.J. Kennedy Prize), Dear October (Arizona-New Mexico Book Award) and Late Self-Portraits (Wheelbarrow Book Prize). Her work has been published in Boulevard, North American Review, Poetry, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner and Rattle. A recipient of the Rita Dove Award, Western Humanities Review Prize and the National Federation Press Women’s Book Prize, Mary has been invited to read her poems at the Library of Congress, which aired on NPR. Kwame Dawes selected her work for American Life in Poetry from the Poetry Foundation. www.water400.org.