Honorable Mention: 2023 Sandy Crimmins Poetry Contest
some people see gender as a line
but I see it as a river
yes the river may travel from one point to another
but little streams and creeks
tributaries and estuaries branch off here and there and wherever
trickling down hills and mountains until the summer melts snow into a showering waterfall
feeding into lakes and oceans
or creating new rivers of their own when it rains and floods
maybe the terrain at the mouth differs from that of the tail
and maybe from the sky there is little difference at all
a deer may hold no preference along the entire length of the river banks
but a dragonfly may live solely in one pocket of reeds
and neither is more precious or damned for it
some may find themselves lodged firmly in place
others mistaken for a rock when they are indeed a tree root
perhaps a stone once thought immovable
erodes to reveal sparkling sediment present the entire time
you may consider me like the deer
leisurely traipsing along the water
stopping the longest in the middle where the grass is most ambiguous
or maybe you think me a duck
paddling along with the current
dabbling in the mud and pebbles and preening my feathers wherever I please
until I grow tired of wetness and fly
but me, I think I am the silt itself
mineral deposits from stars outside
fallen from the clouds and swirling with the water
shimmering my way into every last fingernail and dendrite of the river
blown across the dry prairies and carried by the wind
settling into the seas and swept up by hurricanes until I rejoin the cirrus
and gently dance back down as snowflakes on a mountaintop
waiting for the sun
Corinne is a comic artist and watercolorist currently pursuing a Comics MFA at the California College of the Arts. You can view their work on instagram @corinneiskorean. This is their first published poem.