Rising pressure, shifting forces, and the quiet strength of unity—Weir explores the tension beneath the surface, calling for resilience in a world threatened by division.
Inspired by the the word prompt of “weir”. A weir is a structure built to control the flow of water, to regulate and redirect, but that idea—of controlling something naturally in motion—sparked something deeper for me.
I wanted to explore the instability of shifting forces, the way pressure builds beneath the surface, and how, despite everything, resilience and unity can hold stronger than any wall.
Without stating it outright, this poem speaks to the dangerous shifts in the world around us, the divisions being forced upon us, and the quiet, unrelenting strength of those who refuse to be broken.
They built it to hold,
to tame the waters,
to carve a path where none should wander—
but rivers aren’t meant for silence.
Beneath, the current hums,
a warning in the undertow,
stones shift, pressure climbs,
the weight of what’s been damned
pressing brittle seams.
The weir strains,
a crack, a breath,
some say let the flood come,
split the banks,
drown the voices that don’t match—
but we were never meant to be divided.
Hold fast.
Not to the weir, not the walls—
to each other.
We are not the fracture,
not the break.
We are the river,
the force they feared.
And we rise.
(c) Eric Montgomery
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