Changes Two
Change might just be a terrible thing
he said as the water levels rose
covering the mossy trunks well past
the first or second branching
the mottled bark now deliquescing
handfuls giving up the ghost breaking
off into this liquid landscape of salt
and mud where animals once gamboled
and lovers hid beneath a stippled
canopy wrapped inside their lust
it surely can she said in forthright
confirmation watching as the fires burn
atop surrounding hills watching
the thickness of the blackly cumulous
plumes that shimmer in the hot
extremity as lakes and streams
evaporate adding their moisture to
the menacing violence of the troposphere
parching the earth and all its vegetation
in preparation for a following cycle.
Paul Ilechko is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Pain Sections (Alien Buddha Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Rogue Agent, January Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Book of Matches, and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, New Jersey.