nomenclature (a disassociation)

have you ever ever’d a river until their name was yours?
many have eaten oceans whole & never had a name

to lose except to gain – so don’t come at us denoting
any walls or towers without first spelling out enough air

to breathe within them. this thing of seeing everything
outlined with red isn’t about errors or anger, it’s only surmising

shifts & swiftness, & there are many things that move too slow
to see, & the tantalizing part is how any of them could be me,

like time or each passing river in their sacred processions downstream,
stuck there to ever & ever the continuity of a river until our names dissipate,

to disappear into some great delta & be consumed by the sea –
maybe someday someone will eat that whole sea, which also ate me,

& afterwhile, when none of our names remain: sea will be our name –
& we will flow away in instances & shed into the next sea

& at some point nothing will signify anything
but by the way the light hits it at a moment of grace

Mathew Yates (they/them) is a poet & artist from Paducah, Kentucky with roots in Mississippi & Appalachia. Their poetry & art can be found in Protean Mag, Screen Door Review, Malarkey Books, Barren Mag, & more. Their art can also be found on the cover & inside the 2021 release "stanzas for four hands: an ophanim" by Mathilda Cullen & Dominic Knowles via woeeroa.com. (@m_yates) (www.etsy.com/shop/mathewyatesart)