I set out water for the bird and watch him choose the river to bathe. Adjacency is not close enough to taste the salt, witness nothing but what comes through the eyes. I've only so much hose, not enough to stretch the length of wanting. I turn the knob, close off unwanted flow.
Beth Oast Williams’ poetry has appeared in West Texas Literary Review, Wisconsin Review, Glass Mountain, GASHER Journal, Poetry South, Fjords Review, and Rattle's "Poets Respond," among others. Her poems have been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Her first chapbook, Riding Horses in the Harbor, was published in 2020.
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