Coumeenole
for Owen

Dig! you cried

We dug out great trenches
and extended the abyss
down into an utter darkness
that stopped the heart with its cold

We fought off monstrous beasts
that nudged and butted us with their blunt heads
and from those regions of terror we brought back
massive rocks and curious shells

We threw up huge walls
and ramparts to repel
the encroaching forces
of chaos and disorder

We took all the boulders and all the sand
in the world and ranged up
mountains into the clouds
against the combing winds and the hard sea

And in the territories we had created
we established order
we set up high towers rivetted with light
and we built roads castles and cities

At evening as we left
looked back and saw whole continents dissolve
under the flood and heard
the soft collapse of walls and boundaries

you cried