<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Wade in the Water</div><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><i class="">for the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters</i></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">One of the women greeted me.</div><div class="">I love you, she said. She didn't</div><div class="">Know me, but I believed her,</div><div class="">And a terrible new ache</div><div class="">Rolled over in my chest,</div><div class="">Like in a room where the drapes</div><div class="">Have been swept back. I love you,</div><div class="">I love you, as she continued</div><div class="">Down the hall past other strangers,</div><div class="">Each feeling pierced suddenly</div><div class="">By pillars of heavy light.</div><div class="">I love you, throughout</div><div class="">The performance, in every</div><div class="">Handclap, every stomp.</div><div class="">I love you in the rusted iron</div><div class="">Chains someone was made</div><div class="">To drag until love let them be</div><div class="">Unclasped and left empty</div><div class="">In the center of the ring.</div><div class="">I love you in the water</div><div class="">Where they pretended to wade,</div><div class="">Singing that old blood-deep song</div><div class="">That dragged us to those banks</div><div class="">And cast us in. I love you,</div><div class="">The angles of it scraping at</div><div class="">Each throat, shouldering past</div><div class="">The swirling dust motes</div><div class="">In those beams of light</div><div class="">That whatever we now knew</div><div class="">We could let ourselves feel, knew</div><div class="">To climb. O Woods—O Dogs— </div><div class="">O Tree—O Gun—O Girl, run—</div><div class="">O Miraculous Many Gone—</div><div class="">O Lord—O Lord—O Lord—</div><div class="">Is this love the trouble you promised?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Tracy K. Smith</div></div></body></html>