The city all around me’s built on mud -
I watch the pavements buckle day by day.
The pilings by the water rot away,
I often slosh through streets subsumed by flood,
The sewers and canals are choked with sludge
And concrete crumbles, no way to delay
This overgrowth, immediate decay.
The swamp will swallow all that’s built above.
I used to be upset by all this rot -
Especially in fixtures in our home,
Distressed by broken tiles and cracks in walls.
But now I welcome signs that we are not
Here long; this floating world cannot be owned.
This swamp, this river, will outlast us all.
