You Knew from the Start It Should Stop

It’s been a long time, now,
And the streams that were ditched
And then dug to sink drains

Have cut their routes back through
The cracked stones, back to air.
All those lives, all those years

Since the brick walls of Ur,
Since the tombs, since the mounds,
Since the Greeks and the Han

First moaned how all kings fell,
How small, wild lives ran wild
Through sunk halls roofed in sky,

You dreamed of this, that day
When what’s done would be done
For good and all, no more.

You dreamed, and you were wrong—
New lords rose through new halls.
Each time, new towns grew huge

And made lost towns look small.
Each time poems hoped, It’s done—
It’s gone—they won’t come back—

They came. Well, not next time.
Next time, wrecked courts will hold,
And all fresh streams run raw.