River God

It sleeps as you fear,

there below the darkness,

wavelets and silt

to awaken when gorged

on the tears of the sky

but it is blind, and senseless

it does not love you

even though it feeds you,

nor does it hate you

drowned homes to the contrary

it simply exists, as it has

forever and a day,

as it will when you do not.

It cannot aim for you

as blindness does not allow.

It cannot demand your blood,

there is no tongue to taste.

The river god is hungry,

an implacable sloth

moving at speeds outside

of time until stirring violently,

flowing as it must,

Gaia demands it so.

So take heart, survivors

and future victims:

Rage is not the fuel,

hatred is not the fire

That is impossible.

The river god is senseless,

yet that it is awake

is beyond any human doubt.

That it will forget you,

when it returns to sleep,

is knowledge eternal.