Why did he promise me <br />that we would build ourselves <br />an ark all by ourselves <br />out in back of the house <br />on New York Avenue <br />in Union City New Jersey <br />to the singing of the streetcars <br />after the story <br />of Noah whom nobody <br />believed about the waters <br />that would rise over everything <br />when I told my father <br />I wanted us to build <br />an ark of our own there <br />in the back yard under <br />the kitchen could we do that <br />he told me that we could <br />I want to I said and will we <br />he promised me that we would <br />why did he promise that <br />I wanted us to start then <br />nobody will believe us <br />I said that we are building <br />an ark because the rains <br />are coming and that was true <br />nobody ever believed <br />we would build an ark there <br />nobody would believe <br />that the waters were coming<br /><br />William Stanley Merwin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/before-the-flood/
