High water (water x earth)

Rivers converge within you  
a flood that traces with long fingers 
marks of high water across my soil 
then recede in easy flow

I can only move as stone grinds stone 
never quite able to stay shoulder to shoulder
with you like water 
         — playful, silver-quick light.
 and me like earth 
         — sturdy, burn-slow eruption.                  

my thirsty rock bound roots
may sip,
may never hold

surrendered to the sheer-shape current
debris of what came before
strewn across every inch of shore 
layers powerless before the carving 
the crack breaking 
the life bringing  
that is water 

a millennia from now they will find it
study it carefully with carbon dating,
eyes furrowed against microscopic lenses 

a clear geologic stratum 
deep time boundary line
perfectly preserved evidence 
of the flood lines you left  
across the soil of my soul