Banks
The river make changes everyday
Slowly in a imperceptable way
Tearing down banks that build themselves again
Leaving the crop dry as a pain
We make changes too
Building up banks
And they tear us down again
Tear us down in sleepless nights
Of frets about the stored vanities of our labor
About the forgotten anxieties of our neighbors
Whose happiness and comfort
Our dried up charity say we hate, we hate
Pretending our picket fences
Dream did not prevent us seeing them
Men are suffering in the land of plenty
For the banks determine
That unless the thunder crashes
Like a barbarian suddenly in the living room
Like a child trembling and then the gloom
When the lights go out
And the lightning flashes, and the flood gushes
From rivers broken veins
O the waters over the drains
And resign the power of the banks
To regulate our drought.
And you put your wealth in them
So that you may protect them
While they kill you, while they kill the children
And draw an iron curtain between us
And between the church and heaven
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