213. The Processes of Water and Light

The windows from that height seem to open onto the hills
or the light sweeps in to fill the room

There is a river in it

Or the sky releases through the windows the light
you use to illuminate the process of your day

Sometimes you draw the heat out of it

The light pulls you towards it
and the mountains rising from below

Mountains as a rift between two worlds

Always in that window during the day
but separated by the twilight into two states

Either sunlight or nighttime

Always at that window
to see the world from the other side

Living in a light and looking through it

There at the point where two rivers come together
and we could call it the Chenangquehanna

Confluential

These rivers could convince you of something
about the means of water

Of the way water comes together

Or of the way water diverges
moves in two directions at once

Divides itself

Doubles its range
and ranges farther from this city

The waters of the rivers
do not seem to move away from you

The hills do not appear to shrink or grow

But everything changes in small ways
and constantly

The window gathers gallons of light

Even as the light moves through the glass
the windows remain unchanged by light

But are scarred by wind and rain

Rain that comes through the sky
fills the rivers

Everything keeps the rest of everything else moving

Processes that are circular
and recirculations

Everything goes into them and everything comes out at the other end

And then returns
as if a new day were created just for the next second

And again a day later

The only surprise is the lack of any surprise
or a newspaper fallen on a doorstep a day early

Or words reduced to marks in a field of light

So far as we are we are processes
and their continuities

We move on even when things have stopped