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The Water is Wide
The water is wide
so pile your clothes on top of your head.
The water is wide
so hire a black man to swim it for you.
The water is wide
but the poleman's shadow still crosses it like a bridge.
The water is blue
but so is your heart, they used to call it "blue cages."
The water is blue
it is blending with the sky into one continuous stripe.
The water is blue
if the women walk into it, their skirts will come out wet.
The water is wet
and it sticks to us like sugar, like glue, leaving us sick and disgusted.
The water is wet
we hold our hands high above our heads to avoid touching it.
The water is wet
and when we reach the shore we will scrape it from our bodies
with a dry piece of flint.
We want to start a fire
but we can't start a fire in the river.
We want to start a fire
but we can't feed it logs which have been pulled from the river.
We want to start a fire
but we can't carry it across the river, over our heads,
shining like hats.
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