POEM: BOTH WATER & BRIDGES

Staceyann Chin

 

 

BOTH WATER & BRIDGES

(for Staceyann in the space/time continuum)

a fear expressed is a fear reduced
don't let anxieties about the future, curdle 
the sweet of tasting in the present 

every "now" has its own joys, its own 
sorrows. every lived moment is now. it is 
not the water but the bridge that ages 

precisely because the water is 
constantly renewing... and so, keep running
be water, renew and run, run and renew and

where ever, whom ever you touch, build
build bridges, links, one to the other
whomsoever the other is, we should create

a crossing, a way to connect, a bridge
built by each of us to the other of us
as we flow on and follow our own paths

and so to be whole is to be both:
be water constantly running
be bridges constantly built

life is motion/movement. keep going. 
share the beauty of your flowing, the beauty
of your bridges connecting everywhere 

howsoever old you grow, share your beauty, 
build more bridges. be both water and
bridge, flow & connection—a luta continua...

 

—kalamu ya salaam