They called to me, “Come, see!

the river flows away!”

And I stood watching.

“Away,” they said, “Away,

into a distant land.”

And I watched, waiting.

The river flows, I smiled,

full of fish and glittering stones.

I rested in the thickness of the forest,

fed to greenness with rushing waters.

Breath came and went like wind,

like the rise and fall of cicadas.

They teetered

upon rocky cliffs,

strained to see

where water

might appear.

Full-day weary,

only a trickle,

then darkness,

thick with fog,

hiding the stars.

And I laughed to hear fish leaping and splashing,

while they wept

with empty hearts.

“Come,” I called, “see what the river

Has given us on its journey.”

They yielded at last.

And fire-stones cooked our meat.

And tree-fruits sweetened our meal.

We slept in each other’s arms.

And the river’s song filled our dreams.