Collected to Stay

The sloth reflector,
placid and still,
moves
on its way to the ocean’s end.
The waters,
once untamed,
never collected
in one place to stay.
No lake,
not from Blue Mountain to Loggerhead Beach,
ever delayed the gradual plunge from Appalachia to coastal plain.
The great works,
behemoths now standing,
turn the soft journey
into a choppy brilliance.
New habitats,
human and beast,
formed from
high waters rushing,
then quiet,
then rushing,
then quiet
then to the ocean’s end.

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Evan Nelsen, age 17
Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville Senior High School
Teacher: Bernard Zaidman