by Mary Crosby
… BOROUGH PROPOSES RECYCLING CENTER ON SUPERFUND SITE… EPA FINDS 1,4 DIOXANE IN RINGWOOD BROOKS… TOXIC SOLV…
At the headwaters I spring
into existence
rise like an idea
from the mountain’s mineral mind
glide along
Ramapo’s stone shoulders
across the stubbled field
of his broad chest
and enter
every orifice
the metal chamber
of his heart
its muffled drumbeat
branching deep veins
of ore
wash over
open wounds
porous mines from a poisonous past
everything
becomes part of me
and when I come
to the reservoir
in the mountain’s lap
comingle with its rich promiscuous
history I become part of
you waiting downstream with cupped hands
Mary Crosby is an Assistant Professor of English at Bergen Community College. She has poetry published in Calyx, Paterson Literary Review, Earth’s Daughters and Dos Passos Review, among others. She won Honorable Mention in the 2015 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. Her chapbook Alluvium Stream was published in 2012 by Finishing Line Press.