poetry
David Bristol
KIND EARTH*
Kind Earth:
When your torture ends
Will you spin more beautifully
Or swirl into dustbowl entropy?
Who will observe your loveliness?
Oh, I know,
No more rolling weighted dice for your spoils.
You will simply spin from your own nature
Like a dervish.
Yet, our nature is to witness—
It brings us joy
And anguish for the beauty we cannot know.
What about the children
Who even from the womb observe?
Be patient, our home,
We can clean up;
We’ll start tomorrow
UNTITLED
When hiking alone,
Screeching Mexican Jays
Good company –
They carry the sky around
On their backs—
Even in the rain
*Dedicated to those Indigenous, First Nation people, who try by action and words to make us see our sacred earth and to recognize at the deepest level this sacred truth
–“Wni Wiconi” (Water is Life). And dedicated to all those who have started.
16
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2019