Running with a River on My Left By Cesar L. De Leon

at sunset my shadow runs
eastward down cotton fields
eastward down rusty sorghum rows
staining farm-road shoulders

segments of itself strung
through sabal palm groves
& along oxbow lake banks
where herons sink their feet

into green water         
it waits for me to catch up
we pray over swirls of yellow
huizache flowers and bags stuffed with muddy clothes

the sky a burning scar on our backs
the Gulf of Mexico on our forehead –a sheen of possibilities