| At the desk where the boy sat, he sees the Chicago River. | |
| It raises its hand. | |
| It asks if metaphor should burn. | |
| He says fire is the basis for all forms of the mouth. | |
| He asks, why did you fill the boy with your going? | |
| I didn't know a boy had been added to me, the river says. | |
| Would you have given him back if you knew? | |
| I think so, the river says, I have so many boys in me, | 5 |
| I'm worn out stroking eyes looking up at the day. | |
| Have you written a poem for us? he asks the river, | |
| and the river reads its poem, | |
| and the other students tell the river | |
| it sounds like a poem the boy would have written, | 10 |
| that they smell the boy's cigarettes | |
| in the poem, they feel his teeth | |
| biting the page. | |
| And the river asks, did this boy dream of horses? | |
| because I suddenly dream of horses, I suddenly dream. | 15 |
| They're in a circle and the river says, I've never understood | |
| round things, why would leaving come back | |
| to itself? | |
| And a girl makes a kiss with her mouth and leans it | |
| against the river, and the kiss flows away | 20 |
| but the river wants it back, the river makes sounds | |
| to go after the kiss. | |
| And they all make sounds for the river to carry to the boy. | |
| And the river promises to never surrender the boy's shape | |
| to the ocean. | 25 |
