Hope Erodes

A river runs
black and white
and red
and yellow.
A river runs,
with old men,
and young,
women and
children.
Flowing over
church steps,
into basements,
into souplines,
and flophouses.
They surge forward,
coarsing and rolling,
hungry and displaced.
A river runs
through the country,
through the Delta,
through the state.
A river and it's
thousands of tributaries
runs and flows
and hope erodes.

Who will bend backs
to change its course?

Who will build dams
to stop it?