is drifting back
toward the mouth
of the river,
or he's grown tired
from the long push
and the banks down
further lure him
with the fine silt
of easy slopes,
silky tendrils,
perhaps under
the mountains' mist
something hides he
fears he will reach.

WENDY BARKER'S sixth collection of poetry, winner of the John Ciardi Prize,  is One Blackbird at a Time (BkMk Press, 2015). Among her other books are  From the Moon, Earth is Blue (Wings Press, 2015), Poems’ Progress (Absey & Co., 2002), and a selection of co-translations, Rabindranath Tagore: Final Poems (Braziller, 2001). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 2013.  Recipient of NEA and Rockefeller fellowships, she is Poet-in-Residence and holds the Pearl LeWinn Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio.