After the Flood

Rain
and under water green lowlands

Sitting inside
                           then through sliding door
                                 water               glassy
                on the walks
slick
                                                                                    in the air
                                                             with every grey
                                  coming down from the sky

         already soggy
                                   yesterday
now             
      in the evening
                             in the dusk and drowning
          Ahgreyeuss goes out into the wet
       to visit with creeks
and drag the woods for dead                                                        

Silt                                             
washes off the leaves
                       clear overflowing streams

and cows have come up from flooded pastures
                                                       to Ahgreyeuss Pahn’s wood

He sees glistening dung                                                                 
the color of the smoke            
of burning oak-wood

Mostly water the cows have                                 
 eaten                                                  
 drunk                                                  
breathed                                            
tread                                                   

The first one comes                                                                
staggers                                                                      
drops                                                                                      
drowned in the sodden air

Ahgreyeuss pulls her from his creek                  
black
shiny
He searches for dark                                           
            beauty

The mounds                                                           
and carcasses                                

on the sod                                   
and sinking into the ground                         
will begin to smell                      

He worries briefly                           
but comes to think       
these mounds              

will rot rich