Water Water Everywhere (Poetry)

I dipped my foot in the future’s river
iced my skin to the knee
I felt the fear of my dream near-drowning
as the flood broke its way through me

My leg a poor stick stuck fast in the flowing
no longer warm flesh around bone
the season imagined so cruelly as winter
where a part of me’d wandered alone

I tugged back my limb — fought hard for possession
death-white half my body was numb
the river yawned darkly and spent its regrets
such pollution had rendered it dumb

I turned my face to sterility’s ocean
its blue too intense for my taste
no fish — nothing stirred in the bowl of creation
for the future had all gone to waste