sink / ing

living naturally does not exist

today yellow waters swayed in hammocks

over our lawn’s subsurface drainage system, demanding 

to be seen   an excess     of nature

     unnecessarily plentiful, unnecessarily there

 

in Mississippi, orange hat workers

make topographic history        working to erase

their work        in denial over denying

water its passage: a political protest    of gorging itself

until the water purges clean

 

as New Orleans sinks

we turn        our heads     to anything

     that can stay afloat

 

these days     I wonder

what     sinking     really means, if 

not being able to see the water

means we are already        halfway gone