The River Ordeal

There are no long black
robes, no gavel, no formal words;
your witnesses have stepped down.

Here, your rhetoric falls
on deaf ears, grown-up games can't
save us now - gods pinch our fates
between the fingers.

Cold rush of - deep breath -
Leviathan, water, (so I hope you
remember those summer swimming lessons
when we were young together, diving
for rings on the pool floor.)

If you're lucky, send your slaves, as many
as you can afford. recall:
their lives may cost us ours.

Mother, they can't train in classrooms
for this -
Justice was never meant to be dressed up
fed cocktails, a great pension.
I came to earth in a flood of water;
to the water, I must return.