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Edmund Prestwich

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River Goddess

Place d’Alma, Paris

This was the Heavy Sister. Stolid. Uncompromising.
Tough as bronze. As pig iron. Ankles thick

for stamping holes in the river bed, hands huge
to pull out rocks, or batter through them. When they came

with nets to catch the Spirits of the River
the light ones fled, as frogs, as darting fish,

sinews of water, shimmering ripples; she,
ponderous, inflexible, was caught,

hauled out for all to see, dumped naked
on this trophy plinth, her power,

without the lift of water, locked
in futile struggles to move. Few passers-by

look at her now where she strains
to roll herself over, heave herself up, but catching

her subtler sisters’ odour through the smells
of petrol and warm tar, she pictures how they play,

rolling over and over, all fluid muscle, brushing
banks and boats with their bodies, accepting

oilspills and orange peel, carrier bags, the stain
of run-off from factories, rippling with laughter

in sunlight and warm breezes, shivering
with gooseflesh excitement in winter, delighting eyes

of leaners on bridges and walkers on quays, sustaining the city,
mobile, adaptable. Givers of life. Survivors.

Page(s) 7

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