Life, Washed Away

Upon normal occasions, the girl liked water.
It was calm, smooth, rolling upon itself, self-reliant and assured.

But when the wall of water came upon her village, 
when it cascaded down upon her home and life,

she did not like it. 
In fact, she hated it. 

She was on her way to school,
holding hands with her younger brother,

walking on the cracked sidewalk
towards the dusty town center.

Her brother felt it first; 
a tremble from deep within the Earth.

His tiny hands tightened on hers, 
large, trusting eyes looking to her for safety.

There was nothing she could do, 
but she tried. She tried so hard to save them.

“Run,” she whispered to him. 
And they ran. 

In the end, it made no difference;
the water still descended,

it still hit them like a stone wall
and flattened them to the ground. 

Up became down, left became right, 
the ceiling was at her feet, floor over her head. 

She screamed for her brother, 
lost within the toppled building remains.

Searching, searching, searching, 
searching until the rescue teams took her away. 

They never found him,
like he was swept away into oblivion. 

Her brother, her childhood, her life, gone. 
Nothing was ever the same.