The river

poem by Ruth Salles

teacher Beatriz Retz chalkboard drawing

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The river, at the top of the mountain,
snakes when born,
digging deep in the earth
a bed through which to pass.

And changes the turns it takes
and, in this intense work,
between the mountains, here and there,
the immense valley opens.

Sometimes, if the ground is lacking,
your strength unleashes,
and foams and roars and leaps,
falling into a cataract.

Then stronger and wider,
your path is equalizing,
and takes the drag margins
when the mouth is already arriving.

Suddenly: “Where is my ground?”
Suddenly: “Where am I?”
Is that the river, in turmoil,
there in the sea it ended.

And fight like it's
able to win the vacancies,
and a strip of fresh water
the salt of the waves erases.

Finally, after so much war,
in the immense sea spreads.
Will you look for the land?
when does the foam hit the beach?

***