honoring gulf coast evacuees: a poem by lucille clifton

the mississippi river empties into the gulf

and the gulf enters the sea and so forth,
none of them emptying anything,
all of them carrying yesterday
forever on their white tipped backs,
all of them dragging forward tomorrow.
it is the great circulation
of the earth's body, like the blood
of the gods, this river in which the past
is always flowing. every water
is the same water coming round.
everyday someone is standing on the edge
of this river, staring into time,
whispering mistakenly:
only here. only now.

lucille clifton
linked from Modern American Poetry: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/clifton/onlinepoems.htm