Downpour

Now, in India or Indonesia
(I didn't catch which, I confess,
which is wrong in its own right)
there's rain and flooding.
Every season has its rain
& flood, but this, they say,
is the worst flooding in memory.

We always record things:
fastest pitch since 1974
longest phone call since yesterday
harshest coup since the
mid nineties. In each, time
is stationary, as if we knew
time and we came to agree,

time & us, that it would stay put,
as stated in its contract.
In Santiago, Chile I see buildings
constructed, and have heard
of the falling apart of memory:
a city conscious of its forgetfulness
to produce a new future.

Should it be that we stop
time to hold things in place
or to make room for more.
Even this is a building constructed:
some bit of time caught
and held hostage
to prove a wreckless point.