Standing Song,” Joshua Jordan

Standing Song

Joshua Jordan

For Sanford Dam

The siren-whine tremolo down the arroyo Serves as a sign of my brother’s back broken; Over his wreckage the growing Lethe flows, But hell and high water will not see me open. My own waters coil in eddies to pounce When Stygian cavalries call them to oust With washes of aggregate dragged over sand, But coming Charybdis would still see me stand. Spotlights that sputter like reapers on high Stare like my reckoning wrecking is nigh— Eager eyes wait for it in their sheer light But wry tidal tyrants won’t take me tonight. Force as they may on the bastions of life, I will not descend from my reinforced height, And lash in cruel time as the sea devils must, I’ll meet with these meters the Acheron thrust. In due time, an enemy comes for us all, Designed by the fates to test that which we are. Before no damnation will my pillars fall As I guard with this prayer my soul’s reservoir.