Let the Document Show

Men and women, their hands
held fast, folded. One nation
to another, concealed,
disguised as ceremony, the sharing
of some great thing. And our burden
comes down to this: in the distance
water flows unbidden by land or moon,
mirroring the sounds of our mother
tongue. It runs the spine of slipped
plates collecting the sky. Do you hear it?
Yes, it is so close. And yet for centuries
now so out of reach.