b
this river is rain
splattering
without rain without cloud
into a big brown bowl
a silent concert of absent rain-drops
drumming
settling
into a massive muddy flood
of tears
finely beaded together
it is the weser mermaid
with fish tail
lying supine
serpentine hip
on seductive river floor
pining
for her scaly merman lover
on the blind river-bed
shedding shiny tears
shimmering
tears oozing out of nymph eyes
and sculpted
as watery fish scales
spreading out evenly
on the back of this
endless brown whale
twisting, turning
coiling and uncoiling
with the currents
tiny wavelets and eddies
surging and ebbing
into a huge bilge
and great bulge of water
sloshing
and rippling
together in the bathtub
forming
the weser’s mobile
frosted-glass liquid face
a river-brown translucent
mirror
across the land
splintering the sun
and sending forth
a many-fractured light
hard and bright
as sequins
sudden as many minted coins
banked
lightly on the waters
glinting in the sun
through foam and soap suds
