ON THE RIVER: A DREAM (PART IV)
As evening approached, I began to notice people on the riverbanks
At first just one or two at a time, but as the sunlight faded
And the colors of the water and stones and forest turned to deep pastel
At every turn I saw families, dressed in rags, sitting in old lawn chairs
And watching the river, silently, as if waiting for something
I wondered where they had all come from, how they had gotten to where they were
(I saw no road or path)
And why they had come at this hour
There was no evidence of communication among the little groups
It was as if they had each heard the same call, without reference to one another
And the children, some in diapers
Waded and played in the shallows by the banks
I knew that these were the people that one never saw anywhere else
Living beneath society or in holiness
And as I passed
The men and women looked at me
Without emotion or recognition
without anger or joy
And as the darkness began to fall
The places where each family sat
Took on the look of rooms with a kind of inner light.
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