Requiem to a River

Requiem to a River

In life you gave life

            Watering the knees of the trees

            That on your shores bent to drink.

In life you gave life

            To birds that at daybreak danced

            Among the rainbows that you painted from the waterfalls

            Arched with crystal drops.

In life you gave life

            To fish, insects and algae

            Food chains passing along  packed energy

In life you gave life

            Animals and children splashed

blissfully under the hot summer sun.

Year after year, with trickling tunes of satisfaction

You ran through the earth as blood in the veins

Carrying life on your way.

            But now...

In death you deal out death

We erased the trees

And now you get angry, dragging

Houses and vegetation in whirlpools dyed

Red from bleeding soil.

In death you deal out death

And birds in mounds of garbage

Cease their aerial acrobatics

Failing to find food among the gunk.

In death you deal out death

When the corner stone is smashed

The building blocks of life

Come crashing down.

In death you deal out death

The sores on the skin of the children who

Bathe in your waters, fester.

And the fish float belly up,

Suffocated

Oh river, I wish a miracle could resurrect you,

But we traded  your life

In exchange for our death.

Elena Huegel

1994, Paraguay (Originally in Spanish.  Translated November 20, 2003)