TIANANMEN SQUARE
CONFLUENCE


TIANANMEN SQUARE

A jumble
of twisted bikes
and broken bodies,
blood gathers
and spreads
along the stones,
automatic fire
continues
continues
continues
tanks tread
on ancient stones,
students flee,
workers flee,
people running,
shots
shots
young bodies
crumble
into death
and disappear
as blood stains
spread across
the square
where Mao’s
giant face
looks down
upon the scene
as a thousand
red flowers
bloom.


CONFLUENCE

Calapooia, Willamette
rivers merge,
fast-flowing quiet water
rippling slightly with silt,
smoothing bank’s edge.
Geese squawk
and rush against current
like little steamboats,
seeking floating food bits,
gliding through a crash
of fallen trees,
pale trunks raise smooth limbs
without obstructing water’s flow.
Gray sky ferments light rain,
running down bare trees,
feeding rivers,
flowing north to great Columbia
where hundreds of rivers
join together,
seeking oneness with their sea.