Mudbricks

Mudbricks

Humans, like water, flow down from the hills
To the lowest and easiest level to settle –
On floodplains and coastlines, the habitat fills
With the tides of the houses that sprout-up like petals.
Until, as the towns and the centuries grow
There must come a reckoning one stormy May,
As the flood meets the flood – so the undertow
Shall sink all the streets that stand in its way.

We have to live somewhere, but so does the water,
And so we must share the valleys and lakes –
In a constant battle of marsh and mortar,
To raise-up the levee before it breaks.
The humans are clever, but the river is long,
And gravity draws then both to ground –
So the silt is as soft as the stones are strong,
Till the continents rise or the roofs are drowned.