Black Rivers

On the river that runs through me
There’s a boat headed out to sea
And the helmsman’s losing steam
More each day
And the engineer just sleeps
As the coal burns more violently
Lord help me, I can’t sweep the ash away
A cursed river born of a mighty flood
By the hand of the Almighty
It still teems with the blood of a son
That I drank into me
And like a forest obscured by trees
My rivers fill up with boats like these
And all these vessels in my veins
Float like leaves down vines of black rivers
And love’s a mystery
Like God’s a mystery
My heart is valve and ventricle and flesh
I know not what it means
Just that it burns in me
And tonight it’s not worth venturing a guess