A river runs under the house.
It has always been there,
but the builders thought
they could make it go away
by throwing ash and stone
into the water.

The neighborhood is sinking.
Gradually it will disappear.
Hold onto the walls and furniture
as you start your journey
to the center of the Earth
or out to open sea.

—
Joseph Farley edited Axe Factory from 1986 to 2010. Farley writes poetry, fiction, plays and essays. He also performs with Improv on Rye. His books and chapbooks include Suckers, For the Birds, Longing for the Mother Tongue, Waltz of the Meatballs, Her Eyes, and Crow of Night. His work has appeared recently in Bellview Park Pages, Bewildering Tales, Beyond Imagination, BlazeVOX, Crack the Spine, Danse Macabre, Concrete Meat Sheets, Thunder Sandwich, Horror Sleaze Trash, Schlock, T. Gene Davis Speculative Blog, US 1 Worksheets, Verse Wisconsin, Visions and Voices, Whole Beast Rag, Ygdrasil, Literary Hatchet, and the anthologies One Hell of a Christmas (Thirteen O’Clock Press, 2014) and Night Walkers (Thirteen O’Clock Press, 2014).