I saw a river's birth and death

I saw a river's birth and death

I saw a river’s birth.
Glacial juggernaut melt,
Shedding unneeded girth
In unsullied mountain belt.

I saw a river grow.
Resilient bedrock cut,
By sprightly alpine flow
In bountiful deep earth gut.

I saw a river fall.
Coursing lifeblood stopped,
With choking concrete wall
The plain’s harmony robbed
In unending urban sprawl.

...

Quiet kingfisher,
Limpid, seething river
Boiling, bursting, brimming storm,
Cold, proper to the norm.
Fill me with sweet ecstasy,
Squeeze bile from scarred, dying liver.
Take so much and yet be giver.

Wings you have so that you may
Take to the air, fly away.
Why must I be so alone,
Free and yet so forlorn.
These ties that bind so strong,
The divine right, feel so wrong.

Quiet kingfisher,
Limpid seething river
Lost, my first true lover,
Lost forever…

Drink up now

I wrote this in a fit about a woman who's been in my head for ages, and messes with me in ways too complex for me to describe. It isn't a romantic attachment if that's what you're thinking.

Drink up now,
Feed while you can.
Drink you fat sow—
Leech the poor young man.

Who knows when he’ll come next?
And offer himself to you
Never realizing the sub-text
Dense, missing the cue.

Third wheel, second fiddle, safety net
Call him what you will.
But on this you can surely bet.
He’ll be there waiting still.