You’re not the only thing spinning on this planet.
Ever hear the wind
blow through the trees
and remind you
that there are trees and wind
and you’re not the only thing
spinning on this planet
ya’ll we are spinning
on a planet!
Glued to her by our feet
our hips
the lucky ones
can spin by the crowns of their heads
ever think
about just how much love
it’s gotta take
to keep us all so close
think about
just how much
she doesn’t want to let us go
pulls us in by her core
and man
when we end
be it at our own hand
or nature’s way of aging
she pulls us in closer
let’s our dying cells blend
with every living piece she’s ever had to offer
she is so
unlike us,
doesn’t fear our death
and doesn’t punish whatever route we took to reach it
knows only how to nurture us further
while she nurtures herself further
chews our decaying bones
so we may rise another
play on her playground once more.
Ever think of that?
This playground?
Once I felt her
can’t explain how she talked to me with no words
but she wept to me
not for the damage we’ve done
but for our refusal to play
look at her,
really,
she has given us slides
and monkey bars
and in the case we get bored
she has offered us a change in seasons
sheds her leaves so we too may learn
about letting go when the weather freezes.
She is the only teacher we’ve every really needed
but if you’re gunna learn
you really gotta get quiet
find
the greatest lessons will come when the chatter has subsided.
And I wish,
everyone of us could learn this silence.
Find that forgiveness
is a mere whisper into her wind
let her trees
pass it on to your fathers
let her leaves
carry the love of your mothers
and remind your children
to put their screens away
cuz I’m sure
I’m sure
on their dying day
they’ll only wish they felt the earth more
rolled down every hill that
held little resistance between their
bodies and her bottomless ground.
When I go
I hope they bury me without a casket
let her hug me skin to skin
cell to cell
I want to be wrapped in the dirt we’ve covered in pavement
break through concrete as one of those unstoppable weeds
I hope they spray me
and I grow bigger
remind them that there is a force
outside our being and it doesn’t always go by the name of God
or him
or anything we can point our fingers to
because it is
everything we can point our fingers to
and how do write about that god?
the one we try to suffocate with pesticides
the one we trap in human size snow-globes
and ask the people to pay to witness to her being
she is everything we destroy
and everything we try to grow bigger
and I assure you
she will not punish us for this
she knows
we are only her children
given every reason to play
and every distraction not to
and when she weeps
it is only for our inability to dance among her wildflowers.
So I suggest
that you dance among her wildflowers
learn forgiveness from the one that never asks for apologies
or at the very least
get quiet
find her wisdom in the silence
and play
as the shadows of these branches
know only how to do this dance
one time.