Sarah Katz
Photograph of The Philippine General Hospital, 1905
Black water rolls through the hospital’s arches
into Taft Avenue as terracotta roof tiles
slide into the new river
while four men search for a way out of it
One pushes his body with all limbs
so much river water dripping
off his chin
one could confuse his expression for crying
Two others in the bow and stern of a rowboat
point their salakót hats forward
Muscled arms folding inward and outward
they jab and pull long oars
propelling the boat onward
A fourth leads the rest, naked
his expression mute and river-gray
his legs foreshortened at the knee
immobile as a photograph
There will be a rescue I’m sure of it
but before the men are set free again
the tributary strays downhill
through rice paddy terraces
people and flat stones
Sarah Katz writes poetry, essays, and book reviews. Her work appears in Deaf Lit Extravaganza, MiPOesias, RHINO Poetry, and The Rumpus. She earned an M.F.A. in poetry from American University, where she received the Myra Sklarew Award for her thesis. She has also been awarded the 2015 District Lit Prize and a residency at Vermont Studio Center. Her poetry manuscript, Country of Glass, was named a finalist by Robert Pinsky for Tupelo Press's 2016 Dorset Prize. Sarah lives with her husband, Jonathan, in Fairfax, Virginia, where she works as the Publications Assistant at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
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