Cairo

The evidence was in and it went to the contrary.

The contrary wound around us rather like a river.

The river reacted, spider-like, tangling up its legs

with other wet parts we thought we knew,

such as creeks and fjords and deltas and such.

A beaver sits on the riverbank watching all of this unfold.

He doesn’t know what a fjord is, and he doesn’t care

for other waters, or even other beavers, or the merest

hint of other business, so he removes this evidence.

Then he builds a structure which for years he is rehabbing.

Inside it is hollow and there is his nest.

He is a dark little bastard, all the same.

The water had a fine way of   being, now it is tortured

by these nests and their vassal.

Yet the river doesn’t overthrow the beaver.

Quite the contrary. The river goes around polite as a snake.

It argues a tiny bit at the edges of the lodge,

where young beavers could be napping.

You and I would let loose a flood of tears. Not the river.

You and I would seep hotly into our darkest places.

Not the river. It is a long way from home

and has that on its mind, the day of rising,

when the temples will all be cleansed

and the whole unfathomable truth will out.

According to the waters. According to their book.