Older

A Letter to the Peopled Universe

I know how the earth moves.

I feel its shake.

Every quivering sigh it sings —

I consume it.

I know why the fish all swim.

The currents riding low through their hands,

chilling with a deft sallowness of saltwater.

I know for whom the sky weeps,

and it is no human, animal, mineral, or god.

Gratitude befalls the wicked who humbly tumble

far beneath the source of tears.

My lungs have scented crispness in the summer,

and golden haze in the snow.

My eyes have swallowed the pain of color

and the love the stillness can afford.

My feet have held the fountain's medicine,

and drained its contents into minds of old.

My tongue has shelled the grass of the west,

where only crabapples and soybeans thrive.

I have cried purple storm for

the solitude of a full moon.

My mind has begged you to understand.

Please.