RIVER ON FIRE
You lay, at my
feet, an apology
for the river of
memory, a thin green
sickle snaking along
the brittle bones of
a riparian palimpsest
denuded as a muddy
eyelid, unable to weep
at the apostasy
the betrayal
of Water
You were invincible
once, taming armies
of conquerers with
bleeding feet, Indus
where all must
stop and go
no further
Now on your
desolate shores
songs vanish
from the lungs
of a river
on fire
©2010 Sophia Pandeya
