a silver cloud on the horizon, a storm
of epic estimation, the prophesied harbinger of change
will bring rain to fall for forty days, rising
over the disbelievers, they
will be towed

under by their chains. a mass
of water will plummet down this way
washing out the idle foundation
farms, houses, people─gone
they cannot stand against the flood
for all their sandbagging, they cannot stand,
the wave is too strong

the mississippi’s burgeoning
the levee cannot hold

Lazarus awaken! Sleep not now.
the nightmare veil of wedding’s shroud,
a child’s misery is soon to end.
washed away white pillars,
washed away stolid religion,
man’s hypocrisy can no longer defend

the mississippi’s burgeoning
the levee cannot hold

survivors muddled in their misery, muck
straddled like Black Swamp pony
digging through the ruins
building a tower to their salvation
climbing upon mounds of debris
rising up like desert dunes

a mother finds an empty cradle,
broken porcelain where baby slept,
the shattered image of her child
like tossed and strewn pictures
ravaged by the great deluge
or drowned by river wild

the victorious waves mock their misery!
the victorious waves mock their misery receding
slow into their paths. the change
has swept completely

the arc has struck a rock
unseen in the waters
and vanished in bubble bath
its last survivors are sputtering
and the waves mock their misery,
the waves toss back their heads and laugh

the mississippi’s burgeoning
the levee cannot hold

within the waves washes revelation:
a new world has begun,
the fish and beavers hand in hand
mingled within their schools
and with the ship’s descent
the squid and octopi entangle in lover’s land

and far above their pretty heads
the rainbow, a sign of god’s promise
shines over the ravaged dead