The flood stole in throughout the night,

she listened from an upstairs room

for cattle moaning in their stalls

and those who could no longer speak.

The silence brought the stars to sky

and then the trickle, gulp and suck

that blanketed the roads and fields

reflecting pallor of the dawn.

From window to window she went and heard

the first uncertain song of birds.

And as the dark was washed away

she saw his body floating by

the garden hedge, so peacefully,

as if at last he’d found in death

serenity which life denied.

But when her son had dragged him in,

a sodden, heavy heap of meat,

she pressed her head and rolled her eyes

and howled the awfulness to sleep.