Epic Poem that Rhymes. About the Highest Waterfalls in the World.
The cataracts of Iguacu
fall from the steps
of highness
down to the arms
of el Diablo
and roar into the dryness.
Diablo’s arms encircle falls
that crash down
his enfolding.
Yet all the drops rise back on high
to blight
his infernal holding.
A kind of space
within the walls
forms at Diablo’s base,
where nothing moves or shivers--
except one lonely grace.
They say upon a time
there once
was formed
inside the mind
of god a fancy passing fair
kept separate from mankind.
he kept it lone at Iguacu
for
this fancy passing fair was such
a thing of peerless grace,
which man should never touch.
Thus, in the forest by the falls
there lived a maid thing
of the trees.
Her form was like a veil of mist.
Her hair was of the breeze.
Her shape was of a comeliness
that set man in her thralls.
Her song was cousin
to the sirens
and her eyes
were of the Falls.
For in the falls she saw her down
a fate made even fairer,
Within her eye a sight
of Him,
therefrom gleams
her terror.
But something happened long ago,
They say: upon a yearly
a man did touch the passing fair
so that Iguacu fell
severely.
advertisement