Rain.
Skylight quavers between the shimmery notes.
And blots and bolts.
Wisps of cotton strengthen their sticky webs on blemished pebbles
Sprawl on the nose of a smooth sleek boulder
The current swooshes through, narrowly knocking off the straggler on the wayward leaf
its edges crumpled and stained with dark tips from the sun’s blushes
The ladybug stretches its broken limbs, unfurling and collapsing, flat
Its imbedded dabs of white shook indignantly
Bubbles burst and pop in syncopation
pop. pop!. pop…
A swell of anger bellows from the mouth of Achelous
A flicker of gold, the flash of Hercules
his heart cascades from flesh to stone,
Tumbling, tinkling, the cracks of merry thousands
shattering
into hateful grim
The river booms and groans
rocks squeezes and begs for mercy
the trees fall and waterfalls of dust and sandy dirt collapse into the now soiled river
Water
it swallows the musty drenched sides
Of the empty canal
dead bodies in the river
Boots pummel the river banks
Whose surfaces were waxed with brittle yellow grass
The bodies strewn about like grey flowers
broken cement in the river
Etchings of rubbed-away whispers
reminders of love, prophecy, and the Beyond
Her fist hugs a sprig as her arm support the stone slab of lists
She hurls it, hair whipping, legs flailing
into the stone cold river
the girl turns and trudges onward
the healing had come,
Drenched in fluttering sandals and a snake-stick
