Confluence

Confluence: a place where rivers join
and waters test each other's shade and heft.
They partner, but don't mix, like warp and weft
or heads and tails on each side of a coin.
This strange and color-bifurcated flow
may last for miles, until the waters blend
and sweep, a single torrent, round each bend
absorbing tributaries as they go.

We met, but shared no language. We were fluent
only in our mother-tongues. For years
we worked for understanding. Sweat and tears
resulted in relationships that were congruent.
Confluence: a point where rivers merge,
where streams of language and of thought converge.

Confluence of the Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes
--for Sunday Scribblings

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