Gold Sand River at Stone Drum
Flows in—
Tibet to the north—
snow of peaks transformed
quiet, steady, gathering
Gold Sand River gigs north,
within a mile reverses south
then sharply, decidedly goes east
goes all the way east—
wide, slow, contemplative—
and at Yi Bing becomes:
the YANGTZE
clenched through rock
expansive on plain
rolling, roiling
rolling on and on
generative down through
old, great, flowering,
aged and ever new China
rolling and rolling
back to the sea