Two Meanings Poem

 

As we focus on Moses’ name meaning, “Drawn out of water,” I am reminded of a poem, The Beginning of the Beginning by Phuong T. Vuong.  I invite you to read this slowly savoring each word.  I invite you to open your sacred imagination to the images.  I invite to hold the holy questions the poet is powerfully asking.

 

Who decides where a river starts? When are there enough

sources, strong currents and water wide enough for its name?

 

In Colorado, the Chama begins in smaller creeks and streams,

flows into New Mexico to form the Rio Grande, splitting Texas

 

and Mexico (who decided?) and moves deeper south. I think

a few of these thoughts by a creek on a beaming hot day,

 

as water rips by in rapids propelled, formed in mountains far above.

The water icy even in this summer heat. People grin

 

some false bravery. They sit in tubes and dip into the tide

and be carried away. I think of drowning. Of who sees water

 

as fun. Who gets to play in a heatwave. Who trusts

the flow. Migrants floating in the Rio Grande haunt me, so

 

I think of families tired of waiting, of mercy that never comes,

of taking back Destiny. The rivers must have claimed more

 

this year. Knows no metering but the rush of its mountain

source’s melt. A toddling child follows her father into water’s

 

pull. Think of gang’s demands, of where those come from. Trickles

of needs meeting form a flow of migrants. Think of where

 

it begins. Think of the current of history—long, windy, but

traceable and forceful in its early shapes.

 

Prayerfully ponder these words about water, who decides the name of the water, who decides who has a claim on that water?  I think about how water invisibly evaporates into the embrace of the atmosphere only to be formed into clouds that let loose rainwater that fills the rivers and seas and oceans ~ nature’s recycling program.  That with each breath we breathe in the past and with each exhale we contribute to the present ~ human recycling project today.  May the wisdom of this poem sit and stir in your heart and soul today and this week.  Amen.