The Body as a River

I remember when I learned my body 
is a river. In some places a whisper,  

& in others louder than the groans 
of a cut tree.  

Clear, roiled, demure, expansive.  

Fed by rain, adored by roots 
of ferns. In late summer  

wildflowers bloom along 
my edges, & in winter I learn to  

live beneath  
the superficial.  

I can hold a landscape  
on my hip, a valley  

in the crook of my arm— 
safe, swaddled, and warm.  

Oh how free I felt, 

when I welcomed  
impermanence  

and gave this body 
the grace to transform. 

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Alexandra Crivici-Kramer earned her MA from The Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College and has been a member of the Poetry Society of Vermont since 2017. Her poetry can be found in The Mountain Troubadour, The Bread Loaf Journal, The Inflectionist Review, The Button-Eye Review, and The Middlebury Centennial Journal. She is a teacher of English and Humanities, a certified yoga and ski instructor, and lives in Vermont with her husband, dog, and son born last spring.