Always

By Janet Newman

 

The river always

finds a way

down from the ranges

through the plain

to the sea

 

although sometimes it takes

a circuitous route

around corrals of cliffs,

through macrocarpa roots,

sometimes cross country,

clear across old stones

 

because the river has a way

of folding back

on its way forward,

lengthening and stretching out long and wide

as it takes its time

 

as it longs to find its way

by longing for the sea

 

and in longing reveals

the length of its persistence

 

which is something to long for

however slow

 

the way any life

sometimes doubles back,

folding and looping

 

because the river

always finds the sea

by following

a doubtless course

 

sometimes doubling back

but always moving

eventually

forward.