It's Still Life

Liturgy for the Confluence
(where two rivers meet and the world does not)

I. The Meeting
They do not ask permission, these waters:
the Saône, thick with silt,
the Rhône, clear and urgent,
driving south.

At the narrow tip of land
they arrive still separate,
dark and light,
slow and swift,

then lean together
and go on.

No treaty.
No vow.
Only force.

II. The Surface
From the bridge it looks like peace:
one body,
one direction,
water forgetting its divisions.

But beneath …
currents turn against each other,
eddies knot and release,
cold meets speed
and does not yield.

The surface says nothing.

III. The Looms
In Lyon the looms continue.

Click.
Clack.
Click.

Thread thrown.
Thread caught.

Each length of silk
drawn tight with hunger.

The merchants count.
The shuttles fly.

And still the rivers join
as though nothing fractures
on their banks.

IV. The Hunger
There is a hunger here
that bread does not quiet.

It lives in the wrist,
in the hollowed cheek,
in the hand that works
and does not keep.

It does not fade.
It gathers.

V. The Unstitching
Brigid feels it in the air.
Felreil in the stone.

A tension drawn too tight.

Europe loosens at the seams,
thread by thread,
order giving way
where it was weakest.

At the confluence
they watch the waters take each other
and think:
this is how it happens.

The surface holds.
Below,
everything changes.

The Gendarmes
march
and march.

VI. For Those Who Watch
See the Saône and its silt.
See the Rhône and its speed.
See the place where they meet
and do not agree.

Hear the looms.
Hear the hunger.
Stand at the joining.

Know this:
what appears as one
is never one.

And what moves quietly
is already becoming
something else.

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Liturgy for the Confluence (the Iron Spine)

I. Meeting
Dark water.
Clear water.

They meet.

No asking.
No yielding.

They take each other
and move.

II. Surface
From above:
one river.

Below:
collision.

Cold against speed.
Turn against turn.
The surface holds.

III. Loom
Click.
Clack.
Click.

Thread pulled tight.
Hunger in the fibre.

Hands move.
Coin counts.

Clack.
Clack.
Clack.

IV. Hunger
Not bread.

Wrist.
Cheek.
Hand.

Work without keeping.
It gathers.

V. Unstitching
Air tightens.
Stone hums.

Thread loosens.
Order gives
where it was thin.

Below
change.

VI. Witness
See the waters.
See the seam.

They do not agree.
They go on.

What looks like one
is not one.
Ever.