Before the Meeting of the Waters

Mightn’t it be more satisfying,
More fun to split anticipation
Into two distinct streams, regardless
Of the niceties of prediction?

You could let one carry fantasy,
Whatever you’d prefer to happen,
Whatever you’ve habitually
Been prone to imagine unlikely.

The other consider adventure.
You have no certainty, not ever,
About what a given day will bring.
So, see the dullest as wide-open,

And the same for the most frightening.
All the unknown things swim in this stream,
Each instant’s undiscovered country.
Isn’t that somewhat more exciting?

Leave off trying to stir the waters
Of Rio Negro and Amazon.
Look upstream from where they blend, not down.
Dreams use springs. Unknowns come in rains.