So the lower river came to flood stage
The river rose until it could find no more banks
And then it spilled over into our streets
It drowned cars, dogs, homes
And the people upstream from us
Did not care that we were broken and wet
Did not care that we were hungry and cold
Did not care that we were dying

So the lower river came beyond its limits
The upper river stood by and shook its head
As it poured out upon us unthinking of our grief
The upper river masses shook their unthinking heads
They did not care about anger or grief
They did not care that we felt alone and chilled through
They did not care about how we bent down for rocks
To throw at them when we came to it at last

So the upper river changed its mind about us
As the lower river rose in a raging red tide
As we fell upon them with nothing to lose
As we rose toward them in a storm of bodies
They fell to our boulders upon the earth underneath
They rose in the daytime and cowered at night
And the air rejoiced as the water receded
And they had fallen below the line and had drowned

They had drowned unthinking with us up above
Left us alone with our thoughts and the grief
Of sharing the world with the dead until we joined them
Of sharing the world with our own dying

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T