Xavier Cavasos

yakima river

“I’d rather have poison falling from
the sky than people dying.”
                                       -Dallas, Texas

today the river is calm
more reflection than breeze

elk and goat    salmon
cut the river like a rattlesnake

a tumbleweed pinned against
a rock    shadow on the slope

of a canyon hill   the trees
reflected on the river   skyscrapers

on the blue of water   the road
cuts through the canyon

always in danger    falling
rocks   an eagle nest perched

on a tree   the sky blue with puffy
clouds    the sun out all day

the heat of a rock could burn
a foot before the leap into water

the currents    strong as a dam
damming the river    modifying the

tributaries    irrigation for cherries
and apples and canals and spill-

ways where the runoff
of the nutrients    chemicals

and just plain crap return
to the river    mouthwash

for those of us who dive in
on really hot days

later    we tan and eat apples

~Xavier Cavasos

About Xavier Cavasos

Xavier Cavazos is a McNair Scholar and 1995 Grand Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. A second year MFA student in the Creative Writing Program at Iowa State University, Cavazos was recently awarded a Runner-Up Prize for the 2011 Unterberg Poetry Center's Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Contest, Judged by Cornelius Eady, Brenda Hillman and D.A. Powell. Currently, Cavazos serves as poetry editor for Flyway:Journal of Creative Writing and the Environment.