The River

High water carried her down stream She watched the water's living things She thought, it's not a mound with six planks of wood The cardinal points to hold you up Or a mountain where a shed self could Feed the roots and honor the tongues of the animals Drift into the moss and bloat where the peat bog pulls Rolled like a felled tree With arms as useless as such Death's panic came, a calmness stayed, you couldn't do much Just watch the water chip away at the bank eroding Cut and crumbling through the spate It took a father, it covered a daughter Took her down, down, down With the glass bottles, books, a tire Collected hair tufts in the weeds Snagged and wrapped in the peats Dammed and trapped You said, is this the ceremony? I don't know, well I don't mind The way we all fall in and roll down Pushed through the veins and trafficked byes And when your ears sit under Head is half submerged down below Pooling all accounts of peace while passed beneath the canopy glow