My Life with Rivers by Susan Shaw Sailer

My Life with Rivers

I come from rivers though I live on land.
Began where the Mississippi rises
from Minnesota ground, loped west
with the Missouri until it turned south
when I stayed north. Followed the Blackwater
far as I could, caught the Snake and went
on west till Columbia carried me to Puget Sound
where waves carved chunks from hills.
I fled inland, heard rivers calling me east
to Michigan, to Chicago on the lake.
Kept moving until Monongahela made me home.
Where now shall I roam?

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Susan Shaw Sailer lives in Morgantown, West Virginia. She has published three books—Ship of Light, The God of Roundabouts, and The Distance Beyond Sight—as well as two chapbooks—COAL and Bulletins from a War Zone. Sailer is a member of Chatham University’s Madwomen in the Attic Program and participates in online classes through Zoom.