Delta of Lost Hippos

By Joe Gallagher

When a hippo mother gives birth to twins,
she always abandons one to the river;
the favored calf has a better chance to survive.
But what happens to all the abandoned brothers,
The sisters swept down the muddy Lethe?

They gather in a delta deep in the old grass.
They are waiting to release you,
you who have quit,
you who thought the world was too much,
who couldn’t finish a project, a job, a love.

You maybecrushed shitty-apartmented mudsoled quitters!
It’s ok.
The hippo moms quit on their runts.
God will quit someday. He told us so in Revelation.
The sun will quit quite dramatically. The earth will
follow it out the door. And you, and the hippos,
in your delta of crumpled light,
you will be ready.