Adrienne Rich — Study of History

Out there. The mind of the river as it might be you. Lights [space] blotted by unseen hulls repetitive shapes passing dull foam crusting the margin barges sunk below the water-line with silence. The scow, drudging on. Lying in the dark, to think of you and your harsh traffic gulls pecking your rubbish natural historians mourning your lost purity pleasure cruisers witlessly careening you but this after all is the narrows and after all we have never entirely known what was done to you upstream what powers trepanned which of your channels diverted what rockface leaned to stare in your upturned defenseless face.