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Anti-coping Mechanism

A tranquil stream no longer speaks.
Conversations with riverbeds and pebbles
Long ago ceased.
It howls without words at the concrete behemoth
That taped its mouth shut.
The silent screams now build a beach.

All emotions unfelt
Sink to a bed ever-rising.
The lake the dam built
Will die like all things.
The dam that humans built
Will die like all things.
The humans the lake built
Will die like all things.

And when it crests the surface,
Or when the dam bursts,
And the torrent drowns all downstream
Washing sediment with it,
The dam will be an artifact
In the memory of survivors.
The lake will be a river
Free to speak again.
Then the river will be a trickle
Which dries up like all things