Nicolette Preketes-Tardiani

‘The stream can’t rise above its source.’ Of course, what he meant

to say was the government
can’t ask the judiciary

to this or that way lean.

I suppose this analogy holds in more ways than one for we can’t know more than our education,
can’t rise above our workstation
without approval or promotion,

can’t know another intimately
without knowing them for a time, at least.

But what my professor really meant to say was, ‘Don’t worry, we’re safe
from abuse of power as of late,
for the stream can’t rise above its source.’ Yet, no matter how we try, we can’t force a circle to become a square

or the ultra-privileged to become fair or our leaders to understand
while their heads are stuck in sand.

As I sat in the hall,
I heard reason call like a siren:
what if the source of the stream is poisoned? What if it’s blinding us as we drink from it?
Are we just getting sicker and sicker,
while pollution in the air becomes thicker,
and disease is health’s bucket-kicker,
and we’re dying just to keep up economy figures, and selfishness makes our humanity flicker?

‘The stream can’t rise above its source.’ I wonder what our children will say.