Mariel Boyarsky

RIVER

Its language is of jeweled warblers and marsh bell flowers,
who strip raindrops from the silver air.  Fish push their heads
beneath the sand and move their tails in psalm. 
Mist grasps at tree branches and tugs at their knots.

Every pull of water is made of parts--one beginning,
and one ending that drips uncertainly from stone to stone.
Each river bend curves out before in.  This began with one small bead:
two hydrogens for every oxygen, two glassy eyes for each tail.

Mariel Boyarsky is a high school senior who will be attending Vassar College in the fall. She has been published in a variety of local, state, national, and international publications and contests including Can We Have Our Ball Back?, the Anne Arlys Bowler Poetry Contest and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.