Obedience

I found a little poem called “Obedience”
including a ferocious current and the pointlessness
of working against it.
I understood
the words but for whatever reason could not bring myself
to translate it. 
Whether the river is a trope
or whether sadness
relates to rain
through tears, I don’t know. 
Even knowing,
the future tense construction
as not the future tense
but, rather, an expression
of doubt

does not help. And, anyway,

I would not solve the question of obedience
nor when in a life it matters most, or might.
I wouldn’t say
A river is ferocious, I don’t think.
Whatever

crying did, I can tell you, it does not do
anymore —

unconquerable resolve, steadfast march, even dust
looks wet
given how dry
my eyes are.

It’s not that the poem won’t be turned into something else.

I started all this supposing I’d learn to write with letters.
To tell you all of it.

ξ

Sally Keith is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently River House (Milkweed 2015). She teaches as George Mason University and is Co-Editorial Director of Poetry Daily.