The poem
The moon lies on the river like a drop of oil. The children come to the banks to be healed of their wounds and bruises. The fathers who gave them their wounds and bruises come to be healed of their rage. The mothers grow lovely; their faces soften, the birds in their throats awake. They all stand hand in hand and the trees around them, forever on the verge of becoming one of them, stop shuddering and speak their first word.
But that is not the beginning. It is the end of the story, and before we come to the end, the mothers and fathers and children must find their way to the river, separately, with no one to guide them. That is the long, pitiless part, and it will scare you.
When i first read this poem, i decided to use it on my project for my english class. This poem shows a journey when going to the river and how taking that long endless journey there is good at the end of the rainbow, you reach a place where your sins are all erased. as she says, “and it will scare you”, she means that finding yourself all by yourself is the scariest thing, and it will scare you.