The river does 

not prattle.
                    It churns and
                                               roils and swirls
toward the sea.

                   The river flows

   over
                             all 
                                                         in its path
      making smooth the jagged rock
 
and changing 
                                             course as it wills.

                                  The river has grown full
even dwindled 
                                             down to streams.
                             Yet

 it can still push through bedrock

           and produce thunderous
 
                              waterfalls.  The river knows

 that there will always
                                                 be more salmon

        and that one day rivers will flow

                             no more.

          The course will then be set.

                          And the rocks, 

well, they can be jagged again 
                                                       if they wish.

---

Prompt: Poem as Fable
Write your poem as a modern-day fable. Choose two objects (animals, articles of clothing, household goods…anything) and personify them. Then tell your tale. Do you characters argue? Are they friends?Strangers? Allow the interactions between the objects to do the work for you. OR Use the fable template to start a deep rewrite of one of your poems.

---

Yvette R. Murray is an award-winning poet and writer. She has been published in Chestnut Review, Emrys Journal, Litmosphere, A Gathering Together, and others.  She is the 2022 Susan Laughter Meyers Poetry Fellow, a 2021 Best New Poet selection, a Watering Hole Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is a board member of the South Carolina Writer’s Association and the Poetry Society of South Carolina, and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. Find her on Twitter @MissYvettewrites.