The serpentine and ageless liquid
   mercurial possessed snake
eternally swallowed
   since the beginning of time
   one unquenchable thirst to gorge and slake
slurping up an icy cold mountainous pebbly shake
   yet fresh as an irish spring
   using thy tongue o gaelic spake
   then tumbling down into the cavernous abyss
   subsequently carving
   a deep criss cross patchwork
   across the rock hard rugged topography
   like the handiwork of some invincible force
   commandeering a humungous rake
affixing legendary signature
   quasi-indelible grooves
   only for the near indomitable
   chiseled masterpiece
   to be erased, twisted then wrenched
   by that natural landscape altering phenomena
   identified as an earth quake
creating a fresh tabula rasa to begin anew
   inviting waters from on high to carve
   from the ebbing and flowing millennial currents
   which eventually find a more direct course
   beginning as trickling creek
   swells from winter rains
   and thence in summer while the sun doth bake
   when flora blooms and fauna prance
the firmament  then abandons
   bent elbow oxbow lake
as a former bend in the river.