The wind & the waterfall
In wild, woolly Wales
I saw the wind blow
A waterfall back up its hill.
The rain was hard and
Kicked the stream down the steep hill
To where it could not
But fall down
That rocky canyon.
But that swollen stream met its match at
A slated edge not fifteen feet from the roadside
Where the wind
Refused to cooperate with
Gravity.
And the water, with nowhere to turn
Did a back flip.
And flew part into the wind to go to new places
And part back into the stream to try again.
I’ve been that waterfall.
And by right and reason I was going down
Pulled by gravity,
Kicked by some,
Pushed by my own failings,
Falling rapidly in my despair.
The breath that refused to let me fall
Caught me by surprise.
YOU ARE NOT DONE YET.
It flung me back with confidence
And refused my surrender to gravity.
I became mist.
I became a different stream.
And the shocked onlookers
-One of whom was me-
Had a new story to tell.
-Allegra Jordan 2013 poetrybrigade.org