It was when
He was on the verge
Of death from starvation
That a fish committed suicide
On his angling hook.

It was when
The fish was just drifting
Unable to swim with force
Because he was old
That he noticed
An earth worm come floating

D
O
W
N
D
O
W
N
D
O
W
N
Downstream.

The earthworm
Was kidnapped
By a stranger’s hand
When he was
Swimming through the soil.
Grilled by the
Metal sharpness
Piercing through its body
It must have
Yelled for HELP
When luckily
A fish came its way!

It was then that
A lover/poet/mad man
Who came to the river bank
To commit suicide
Noticed the carnal coupling
Between life and death
In the river
And stood there stunned
By the sight.

It was when
The famished river
Had kept its mouth open
Readying for the fisher man
Some slippery moss
To slip and fall
And an undercurrent
For him to drown in
That a young man
Jumped into the water
And the fisherman
Dived after him
And both were saved.

Thus, a river flows on
Murmuring that
Life is nothing but
The slowest kind of death.

Even outside the river
In unseen spaces
Many kinds of rivers
Keep flowing in hiding.

Actually
On the river bank
At the same time
There are many beings
That still survive.

------------------- (T ) Ra Sh