Ouse

No one told me about the darkness. No one told me about the rain. No one told me about the solitude. Follow the riverbank, they said. Just follow the riverbank. Ignore all other paths. I went against the brown tide, through the treeless nearby. No one told me about the cold, the autumn fog, the grey grass. Just follow the river, just follow the rocks. It's a long way, they said. But no one told me about the loss, about the silence. The dense water, the ground breaking with waves. There was no music to open the gate. Just bare hands with drops of rain. Black birds in the distance. Can you imagine the night? The unravelling of his pain? The blindness of the fire. The weeping of the elm. And she; unvanquished, unyielding. No one told me about Death.