When we are born
thirst makes us cry
thirst surges through our arteries
when the hormones hit
when we start to wither
our thirst intensifies
for the tongue of touch
the magazine of rain
we remember we were once loved
love kept us alive
***
the mother’s face
was the face of God
the berries in the bucket
were sweet to the taste
we were swifter than eagles
stronger than lions
when was this
it was in our dream
and when we wake
all gone but the thirst
***
now we pause to watch
sparrows compete in a puddle
now we peer into a stroller
at a months-old face
now we reach for something
to give the homeless man
love not yet flooding back
we are sparrows
and babies and beggars
we must drink our thirst
Alicia Ostriker’s new volume of poems, The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems 2002-2019, will be her seventeenth. Ostriker is currently New York State Poet Laureate and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
