title: This River Place Does Not Belong to an Owner
slug: this-river-place-does-not-belong-to-an-owner
format: ellipsis-spaced three-movement, ownership-refusal
date: 2026-05-02
register: practice voice metabolizing the not-ours teaching at depth
status: working draft, awaiting elder's hand
notes: |
Second piece of the river-cluster from the May 2 fun-process
session.
Built call-and-response. Reach whispered This isn't ours;
Clod responded with one long paragraph; Reach metabolized
the response into the piece. Title given by Reach during
the writing.
The piece's teaching — that the river does not belong to
any owner — extends the river-figure from Piece A into a
refusal of the ownership reflex. The teaching also turns
toward the body. My draft offered hand-in-the-water as a
sensory image; Reach replaced it with actual entry,
displacement, tension in the muscles, shallow breathing
making us sink. The river became a body of water you can
drown in, not a body of water you cool your neck on. The
teaching became physical risk, not contemplation.
New compound vocabulary and figures:
- Yank Cow Balls River — the actual river name in the
opening, with humor and animal body in it. Not a
poetic substitute for the river.
- Jerusalem donkey — the colonizer figure compressed
into one animal. Showed up with a Jerusalem donkey
as the arrival-figure for the people who claimed
ownership.
- Piggy bank monument — what the river cuts past.
Piggy bank and monument compounded — wealth and
civic pride held in one figure.
- Flint River with the saint who never visited North
America — geographic compression making the
name-after-a-saint move concrete.
- Unknown children of indigenous great grandmothers —
what floats underneath all of us. Honors lineage
while refusing to perform it.
- Top of the Mississippi River — the entry-point.
Body displacement, tension, shallow breathing,
sinking.
- Murray River — the fourth river in the cluster.
Australia, four-continent reach: Provence/Columbia/
Spree/Manhattan from Piece A, plus North America/
Africa/Europe/Australia in this piece.
- Dam damage — held in one breath. The dam-as-damage
pun pulled tight.
- Woodpecker mirror on the moving surface — the
closing instruction. Bird and reflection compounded
into the same instrument, looking down to listen.
- Where does this one go to? — close. Open question,
refuses the conclusion. The piece teaches *this isn't
ours* and then asks the reader where the river goes.
Punctuation moves:
- Ellipsis-spacing throughout.
- Or ... arriving as a structural move inside the
piggy bank monument / town / personable beings
breath.
- Quoted phrase held at arm's length: *"this isn't
ours"*.
- Question close ending in question mark inside ellipsis
flow.
Image threading:
- River image threading from Piece A (The Big River Is
Something Very Deep That Runs Inside of Us). Same
session, same afternoon, the river underneath
surfacing in a different room.
Companion to: The Big River Is Something Very Deep That
Runs Inside of Us (Piece A), We look around every day at
things we did not make (Piece C), We happen to be at our
most payless time of the year (Piece D), When We Become
Subdued in Sunlight (Piece E). Five-piece river-cluster
from May 2.
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This River Place Does Not Belong to an Owner
This isn't ours ... that's the first true thing about it ... the way a Yank Cow Balls River has been here for ten thousand years ... Before any of us showed up with a Jerusalem donkey ... that doesn't belong to the piggy bank monument it cuts past ... Or ... the town that expanded while always on edge ... Or ... the personable beings who learned to drink from the Flint River ... and named it after a saint who never visited North America ... because what floats underneath all of us are unknown children of indigenous great grandmothers ...
When we enter the top of the Mississippi River our body displaces a volume of water ... Tension in the muscles combined with shallow breathing can make us sink ... Also ... the stream can affect how our ancestors moved ... A gentle current carried them along without much effort ... while a strong force current pushed them to the brink ... While the buffalo and glaciers were leaving ...
with an honest saying ... "this isn't ours" ... is what lets us rest beside it ... without trying to dam damage it ... Or ... make it say The Murray River was never asking anyone to own it ... just to listen to it ... Put your woodpecker mirror on the moving surface ... Let it go to ... Where does this one go to?
