The Time of Flooding

Painting, Noah’s Ark, by Edward Hicks/commons.wikimedia.org

Noah had a vision. Vesta, his wife, listened.
She was strong and tall. Vesta cut
the thickest trees, and together
they sliced logs, bent them to build
a seaworthy boat with cabins.

She sang to the trees as they fell,
sang how their strength would be known
in stories of all people, how they
would save all life by giving their own.
She sang as they built their boat.

Birds flocked to its masts and built nests.
Fox, squirrel, and rabbit hopped into corners
for shelter when the waters rose.
Noah dug small apple trees, grapevines,
and vegetables, carried them to the deck.

Vesta picked the garden clean, cabbages,
potatoes, stored any food that was dried or ripe.
She was newly pregnant, so stored mint to settle
her stomach, and goat cheeses to nourish.

Noah said it was time; he brought farm animals on board—
chickens, ducks, two donkeys, and more. They sailed off,
lifted by floods into the sea, floating with hawks, owls,
chicks, and ducklings. Floating with new life.

Sometimes Noah put his ear to her womb,
listened to the small heart beat, wondered
what kind of fool he was, because of a vision,
sailing away from all they knew.

Early one morning hawk returned from flight,
a small mouse dangling from her mouth,
food for her own child. Noah rejoiced, set course
for a small far away spot that caught rays of sunlight.
He noticed rain had slowed to a drizzle.
Vesta and a goat stood at his side.

Elaine Reardon

Elaine Reardon paints and writes by a forest stream in Western Massachusetts. Her first chapbook, The Heart is a Nursery For Hope, won first honors from Flutter Press. A new chapbook, Stories Told In A Forgotten Tongue was published by Finishing Line Press in 2024. Website: elainereardon.wordpress.com.

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