When I first caught a frog
Gelatinous and milky grey
I was squatted flat feet crusted
Imagining my heels melting into the clay fractures
And tried to see my teeth in his eyes

When I first saw the rain
The air was laden with its precipice girth
And the humid space was crying out
Fall! Fell in saturating bliss
Breaking my reflection in the pool

When I first sowed the seeds
We sprayed the toss in mimic rain
Soft over cupped calloused fists
And waited tenderly on the shoot
Translucent live river jade

When I first waded the field
Thing high in coffee dregs rising
To lap at my navel like a thick tide
The rice eyes periscoping on the surface
Whose shoots embower knowing eels

When I first farewelled the flood
The crop began to shiver
Declothed of mother’s shawl waters
And as it receded lay down
Prostrate like a sleeping flock

When I first watched the harvest
Threshers swaying waltzing crafting
The spoils shrink away down the river
On churning gunmetal barge
Celebratory tang of charcoal, the pride

When I remembered