Black Rivers -

On the river that runs through me

There’s a boat headed out to sea

And the helmsman’s losing steam

More each day

And the engineer just sleeps

As the coal burns more violently

Lord help me, I can’t sweep the ash away

A cursed river born of a mighty flood

By the hand of the Almighty

It still teems with the blood of a son

That I drank into me

And like a forest obscured by trees

My rivers fill up with boats like these

And all these vessels in my veins

Float like leaves down vines of black rivers

And love’s a mystery

Like God’s a mystery

My heart is valve and ventricle and flesh

I know not what it means

Just that it burns in me

And tonight it’s not worth venturing a guess