Eight-line Poems

Meander

Meander

The river is a living thing,
looping like a snake;
it slides off the slip-off slope
and makes a cut-off bank,
so writhing across the plain,
ever changing and inconstant,
mocking our attempts
to use it as a bound’ry.


Line count: 8
Free verse
For Express It In Eight, 02.14.22
Prompt: Slope, boundary.
Note: The use of the Mississippi as a boundary between states has led to some odd anomalies as the river has changed its course over the years. Tiny slices of one state now find themselves on the wrong side of the river, making a complete nonsense of cartographers’ drawing of lines.