Rain formed onto pearl-like drops of grain, through a filigree of grass, and the bluish-grey oyster-husk of tarmac, onto a riddle of small, smooth stones, worn
by the actions of water, seepage through the tittle-tattling surface stones, down to the cloggy dross of shells and clay and river sediment, winnowing past a network of limestone stalactites, separating out into its simpler elements, removing its impurities like the seeking hands of a pearl-diver, on the water goes, through the excreta of cadavers, quietly broken down by living organisms, congesting, seeping through the soil out into deltas, into
river mouths, into the blue beak of a waiting gosling.
Copyright © Melanie Challenger 2003
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This electronic version of Blue Danube is published
by The Richmond Review by arrangement with the author.
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