Entrenched

A rift has settled between us.
erosion dug deep into the limestone
of feeling, a riverbed formed
out of hard rocks, cliffs
are now hanging precariously -
Canyons, they say,
are much more common in arid areas

as loneliness and absence
has a greater effect
in already arid zones.

An entrenched river is unable
to easily alter course, once
a river is busy grinding pebbles,
depositing more and more past.

When I walk towards you
I have to tread carefully,
each step further, my feet
sink deeper into the mud.
You know my words too
are heavy with clay.

You cannot keep up with your words
your strength dragging, and that is difficult
like a door opening into water,
or the painful push of an unborn
bearing down the amniotic fluid.

Mute fish know their path, small children
carry back what they know. But I never know
how much sunlight will penetrate water,
how far it can reach deep down,
if it can divide dark from light,
or clarify a picture.
We are losing touch, elodea spreading.
What lies beneath is disintegrating.

We are swamped by and by
unable to see things anymore for real,
only convex , concave,
in rising and falling bubbles.