Cataract

A cataract is a type

Of waterfall. One of the most stunning

Examples are the Iguazu Falls

Between Brazil

And Argentina. The encyclopedia Britannica

Defines a cataract as containing large volumes of water

Rushing over a precipice

If something so characterized

By transition can be said

To contain anything.

Cataract comes from the Greek meaning

To flow down, includes the English

For carnivorous mammal with retractable

Claws, sometimes domesticated, and also

For something done, now history -

A pretense, perhaps, or a section

Of a play, finished when the curtain

Falls. They are also the clouds

That form in the black pupils

Of old women, like the flat steel

Over sightless December skies.

A little world in a drop

Of water, lost in a roar

Rushed and churned and cast over

Edges, foaming white and rising

Like fangs against the rocks, or paper thin

Hands, which reach out an instant

Then disappear.

Tower Falls, Yellowstone.