De Flumina

Narrows where light

was slit above

and water sang

to itself carving way

down to floodplain

basins as long-necked

birds gathered to pluck

fish from the water

who never knew guilt

flushed to the deltas

with ditches leading off

to fields and other places

where maize grew

and mud hazardous

as mouths now leash

currents to the end

of land coursed through

out of sand opening

its sterility of lips

words spoken