Washed in the River

by Beckian Fritz Goldberg

Of course the woman with the mouse–child was famous,

as grace is famous

a rarity

at the end of suffering. She kept him in

a nest in the dry bathtub

and washed in the river.

And though only children were meant

to believe this, I still believe this.

The fate of the body

is to confound

itself with everything. That's why

in another tale, the fair sister

opened her mouth and spoke

rubies

and the plain sister, vipers and toads.

Meanwhile the mother

of the gray thing

bathed him in a teacup.

Plucked him out and let him

run along the shore

to the window. Where both of them

were struck with longing—

he behind the great glass,

she behind the gray boy.

The second you see yourself in the suffering

the story's over.

About the Author:
Beckian Fritz Goldberg holds an M.F.A .from Vermont College and is the author of several volumes of poetry: Body Betrayer (Cleveland State University Press, l99l), In the Badlands of Desire (Cleveland State University, l993), Never Be the Horse, winner of the University of Akron Poetry Prize selected by Thomas Lux (University of Akron Press, l999), Twentieth Century Children, a limited edition chapbook (Graphic Design Press, Indiana University, l999), Lie Awake Lake, winner of the 2004 Field Poetry Prize (Oberlin College Press, 2005, ) and The Book of Accident (University of Akron Press, forthcoming, 2007). Her work has appeared widely in anthologies and journals including The American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry l995, Field, The Gettysburg Review, Harper's, Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, New American Poets of the 90’s and The Massachusetts Review. She has been awarded the Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize, The Gettysburg Review Annual Poetry Award, The University of Akron Press Poetry Prize, the Field Poetry Prize, two Arizona Arts Commission Poetry Fellowships and a Pushcart Prize. Goldberg currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Arizona State University.

Copyright © 1999 by Beckian Fritz Goldberg. This poem first appeared in The Iowa Review, Vol. 29, #3 and may not be reproduced in any form without the author's express written permission. "The Mouse Child" painting, which was inspired by Goldberg's poem, is copyright © 2000 by Terri Windling. More of her art can be viewed in the Endicott gallery.