Across ashen river
again and again
and cold the wind
and my boat wracked and wrung.
The far shore nears at my assays
’til oars snap and waves rend.
Serpents circle and crush
and river sludge spews and rots.
I swim barely back
dragged panting to shore
lost half-drowned
and I stare sitting across
and long for the passage
no boat will hold me ever
despairs the voice.
Never will I cross.
All is wide and fraught
and full of snakes
and of poison wind.
Fate stakes me on this beach
alone to watch the waves
and the unreachable shore