The world wave

There's a world wave coming
round the earth, it's rippled tide
is higher than the evening star
and a thousand times as wide;

you can hear it breathing in
as you try to start your car,
as you crumple out of sleep
or wherever you are.

There's a wave getting closer,
pouring up into the sky;
and the crest of its water
is ten thousand feet high;

you can stumble up the mountains
to the level of the snow
but when the world wave arrives
there'll be nowhere to go.

There's a blue green front of water
flecked with yellow foam and curled
like a hooded serpent striking
at the hole in the world;

close your eyes or block your senses,
run with arms aflail like wings
but there is no evading what the
world wave brings.