Forgotten Ground Regained
Changeable Presence
Shaper and batterer, · soother of victims,now low, now high · lingering, dashing,blue-skinned or green, · or brown, whitely crowned,servant and poisoner, · poised to arisein life and beauty · when bonds hold her,death and suffering · when sundered from those.Her soft body · is sought by menboth night and day, · but death visits,with writhing and fear, · those who find her unsought.And while one grows weary, · wishing her elsewhere,another’s chants · fill chapels with pleasthat her gentle touch, · tiresome before,come, night or noon, · and nevermore leave.
Copyright © Donald Mace Williams, 2023
Originally published in Barrow Street, Winter 2004
Reprinted in Forgotten Ground Regained: A Journal of Alliterative Verse, New Series, Issue 2, Spring, 2024
Answer: water