sometimes a river

is swollen--

because it carries

an Ocean as a

foreign object.

growing sideways

with escape--

as it leaves

little spinning

crosses in every

ripple.

we are alive because we won
some cosmic lottery of laws
a battle versus antimatter
everything we know and are

we are alive because we won
the perfect distance from the Sun
where water flows and life may grow
upon, along, above, beyond

we are alive because we won
a litany of love and war
we wonder from atop our tree
where have the other branches gone

between the void and kingdom come
between infinity and none
and of that number
only one

we are alive because we won