Waters That Do Not Wait: song for the lost of Nepal

  oooooooh ooooooh ooh ohhhh oooooh Waters That Do Not Wait! Verse 1 The mountains broke open Rain fell without end Rivers rose faster than warning could travel Carried away homes Carried away roads Carried away people who stood where they had always stood Mud thick as grief covered everything familiar There was nowhere high enough Nowhere safe enough to run Verse 2 They reached out hands across the border Asked for what neighbours give when the ground falls away Asked for help while there was still time to find the living Before the cold took those clinging to branches and roofs Silence came back Heavy and long Walls stayed closed Gates stayed shut The water did not care about borders or politics It just kept rising Chorus The flood took everything And those who could have reached across Turned their faces away Watched from the other side of the river Watched while lives dissolved in brown rushing water Promises stayed quiet Aid did not come The mountains watched in silence And the people cried out And no one answered Verse 3 Families scattered like leaves in the flow Children separated from parents in the dark Old ones could not climb Weak ones could not hold on They stood knee deep then waist deep then neck deep Waiting for boats that never appeared Waiting for signs that someone saw them That someone cared The water kept rising And the help did not Bridge They share the same sky The same ancient peaks The same rivers that do not know lines drawn on maps But when the moment came When the earth shook and the waters swallowed The difference showed clear as day One side had the means to steady the hand The other chose to stand back Let the current take what it would take Verse 4 Now the waters pull back Leaving mud and broken things And the memory of who came And who stayed away They will rebuild what they can Stone by stone Slow and tired But the rift will remain Deep as any river The knowing that when the world fell apart The neighbour did not come Outro The river flows on It does not remember names But the people do They will not forget Who stood beside them And who looked away Forever