YouTube in Monsoon Time

YouTube in Monsoon Time

Laura E. Lucht

Curious, I click the link.
This video simulates a risk
dismissed by all official sources:
What if Three Gorges Dam fails?
Watch it here, a wall of water
flushing half of China, scouring
the Middle Kingdom, diluvian
apocalypse erasing this city
and that — ten million souls apiece.
Anabranches swallow suburbs,
fathoms of calamity.
I set down the screen to sip my tea.

For three days, no news comes.
Water inches higher
on the far side of the globe.
The dam quivers.
The flood subsides.
Tell me — did it matter that I prayed?

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Laura E. Lucht
Poet

Laura grew up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and now lives near Seattle, Washington. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University and an MA International Studies from the University of Washington. Her poetry has appeared in Solum Journal.

Photography by Aleksandar Pasaric