again the earth is forced
to swallow one
of those rains
that arrive to prove
a dangerous elemental

point. before they can
finish eating one another
the catfish on a home farm,
relaxed in something earthen
are displaced, suddenly.

the suddenness of water
imprints sallow-ness
on fish-skin.
now the entire earth is home
to the displaced, and

ex-rainwater, now manured, seeps,
softening soil, on a quest
to quench the blazing hellfire
at earth’s core, that
we believed in as children.

 

*
From Magma 88, Underworld

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