April Showers Bring...

Photo from Magpie Tales

Watching the Flood

The water is rising

and the wind, ruffling

the river’s surface. Hard down from

the north the water pours,

from Muddy Pond, from the Williams,

the Green, and the Konkapot,

from snowmelt and

lashing rain, until the banks

of the Housie disappear beneath

mad swirls of foam-specked brown.

Like a furious dragon the water

leaps, dashing itself against

the bridge, its tail lashing

the abutments, its sinuous body eddying

over banks and around trees,

tumbling rocks and bits of flotsam

down, down to where I stand,

my back to the bullying wind,

watching the watery beast

devour cornfields, the rock bridge,

the wetlands and swamps,

and now the road beneath my feet.