The Shallow Ends
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Submissions
  • Archives
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016

THE DEPT OF THE GODS - RIVER BUREAU

8/30/2018

 
                    by Kwame Opoku-Duku 

                   
to the River Ofin

we go out into the bush    alone we go mad with holy    
    

                        trembling like children

emerged from        water running into the sun    

            the only thing holier than word

is blood     to belong to the river

                        is     to belong to the infinite

is    to call it a god         & to the river  
     

            every child’s cry is a psalm      
 

if the gods do exist     may all bodies

                        tremble     the same     

men lie while holy    about so many things    

            we tell lies    about children   
   

let the water babies sing         this is our block  
      

                        we can make as much noise as we want

keep talkin all that mess    & see what happens

            when our     momma gets back








Picture
photo by John Henri Coene

Kwame Opoku-Duku is the author of The Unbnd Verses (Glass Poetry Press, 2018). His work is featured or forthcoming in BOMB, the Massachusetts Review, The Literary Review, Bettering American Poetry, Booth, BOAAT, and other publications. Kwame lives in New York City, where he is a teaching artist, and along with Karisma Price, he is a founding member of the Unbnd Collective. He tweets @kwamethethird.


Comments are closed.
© COPYRIGHT 2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Submissions
  • Archives
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016