Noah and his Wife

we could not keep the world

from drowning

as our planet had not learned yet

how to flotate on its axis

and so even from the lifeguard chair

there was nothing we could do

all we could see was the lake

full of all the swummers

drowning in forgret.

all hearts were disremembered

except our own,

and as the bloodwaters closed in

we two rose once more,

rebuilt the Phalen world on the Ararat

between us. And the new earth

was a kinder one, a more loving one

to live and die in, even if no one was alive

to remember it.