Efflix 2. Where Water Climbs

They planted cedar over brick
Made summer bloom where air was thin
They brought the river to my door
But not the road I knew before
Every terrace knows my name
Every flower speaks the same
A garden can be taught to grow
But cannot tell me where to go
The wheels turn under the walls
I hear the water climb
Water climbs, water climbs
Through the heart of Babylon
Every leaf returns the light
But the life I knew is gone
Build me mountains out of stone
Hang the green across the sky
You can raise a river high
But you cannot raise back time

I counted teeth in every wheel
Believing beauty made things heal
I thought when water reached the crown
Your missing hills would settle down
I measured pressure, height and rain
But found no instrument for pain
A perfect garden, line by line
Still blooms on someone else’s time
The wheels turn under the walls
Was all this work in vain?
Water climbs, water climbs
Through the heart of Babylon
Every leaf returns the light
But the life we knew is gone
Build me mountains out of stone
Hang the green across the sky
You can raise a river high
But you cannot raise back time

I could not build the road behind you
I never asked you to erase
The empty distance I still carry
Or put my homeland in its place
Then what was all this labour for?
You gave my grief a place to breathe
Not every garden brings us home—
Some teach us how to stay and leave
Water climbs, water climbs
Through the heart of Babylon
Let the branches touch the light
I can mourn and still move on
You built no doorway to the past
No world untouched by loss or time
You built a place where I can start
Here above the waterline

The garden is not where I came from
It is where I begin