City of Rain

By: Mary Elliott

The land

claimed by river spirits

in this city of rain.

They linger on bridges,

cloud-veiled, patient.

Their voices coil through the steel,

whispering:

“All things, eventually, return to water.

Stone,

Flesh,

Memory –

all yield to time.”

And the people

pass blind beneath it all,

blessed and cursed alike,

their names scrawled in the rain

and washed away by it.

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Mary Elliott is a member of the California Poetry Society and recently received an Honorable Mention in their 38th Annual Contest for her poem, “Hexagram 9”. Her work has appeared in California Quarterly, HAVIK, and the anthologies “Crystal Fire: Poems of Joy and Wis-dom,” and Wingless Dreamer: “A Glass of Wine with Edgar”. She holds a degree in English Literature and Language from the University of California, Santa Barbara.