The Valley Between the Floods

By Jesse Keith Butler

The valley beneath you
scoops deep like a cup.
You can’t tell what fills it.
You almost can see through
the blue hazy immanence
topping it up
to the far jagged rim
that hangs there—high, ominous,
echoing, dim.
You’ll watch as it spills out
and sweeps the next valley
in dark, frothy suds.
You’ll see it then fully—
it was ever only
a valley
            between
                        the floods.

This once was an ocean—
it will be again—
spitting and gushing,
lashing and raging,
electric with life.
See the wake of what isn’t
still there, even if
the shadowy presence
that massed in it once
is haunting your glance—
Submerging, it surges,
it swells up and scuds
its spine through the surface,
then stillness immerses
a valley
            between
                        the floods.

This valley will flood
in slow waves that come
and pass intermittently,
leaving thick scum
on a meadow of mud.
Then, silently, suddenly,
life is restored.
You blink—Out of nowhere,
it’s burst out in flower—
It’s speckled and starred
and miled with a million
brightening buds,
all arching and swelling,
defiantly filling
a valley
            between
                        the floods.

Jesse Keith Butler lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with his wife and two children. He recently won third place in the Kierkegaard Poetry Competition. You can find his poems in a variety of journals, including Arc Poetry Magazine, Blue Unicorn, Dappled Things, THINK, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and flo. His first book, The Living Law (Darkly Bright Press, 2024), is now available wherever books are sold.