Lifecycle

 

“Abstract Evolution Series 1018” by Dina Sierra

 

 

we were born in damp caves
or perhaps came from
under the sea
before planets had names
or a language for teaching us
how to adore them
our tadpole tails twitched
with momentous intense
metamorphosis
standing us bipedal upright
enabling the reach of our
eyes and our ears to the stars
seeking company somewhere
more noble than we
finding only the echoes
of our own beginnings
as ungrateful stewards in heir
to our own earthen womb
left to struggle with finding
the right way to love her

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

What on Earth?

 

“Green Earth” by Robert Rodriguez

 

how does the bird consider its shadow

react to its passing reflections in glass

can it marvel at knowing its special existence

its place in the animate telltale of skies

I would fly upon free-flowing wind if I could

take particular pleasure in being at one with

the beautiful blue peering down at lush green

skirting mountains and gliding through valleys

whose glistening rivers feed sparkling seas

all to wonder from breathtaking vantage of

high airy precincts so perfectly hinting of heaven

why denizens wingless and seemingly witless

behave with indifference and even hostility

laid to the life-giving grants of a kindly creation

Sparrows

Illustration of China’s Great Sparrow Campaign from “The Free Republic”

 

(Regarding the ‘Great Sparrow Campaign’ of Mao Zedong)

 
 
an arrangement of sparrows

disturbing to new revolutions

a cultural warning that power

cannot be extorted from nature

no surly deployed great leap forward

can subjugate raw ecological forces

no matter the vulnerability suffered

by man’s own prerogative politics

turning of guns on each other is

ultimately in the great cosmic

context of no lasting consequence

politics being at best and at worst

an ephemeral human estate

but in drawing a bead upon nature

herself even tyrants need recognize

nature will have her revenge

Wildfires

“Wildfire 8” by Chad Rice

fires burn themselves

into the westerly mind

dead and dry

intellectual tinder

the product of seasons

bereft of a rational rain

such is proximate peril

for sun-drunken planning

of ego’s encroachment

on landscapes unsuited

to brazen self-interest

and reckless ecology

answering arrogant

insult with rage of

retributive flames

Figments

 

“Red Dragon” by Milen Tod

 

 

the dragons come at midnight
when the guns are asleep
fire rains with the stench of dead angels
humanity thinned of its arrogance
stripped of its guardians
carbonized corpses retaining
no more than stilled shadows of life
fly ash scattered and blown
in the draft of grim leathery wings
man paying the ultimate price for
asserting dominion of nature
what irony unnatural creatures
meta-ethical figments of vengeance
deliver the strike that dethrones him
and yet they find need to come
night after night burning bodies in beds
human hubris so deeply inbred
that acute fears of dragons and death
never last past the morning
each day man climbs back on his throne
spouting same old same vacuous edicts
all lessons of darkness forgotten

 

 

From my books Onionskin and Legacies (vol. 2)

Run Like Hell

“Approaching Storm”
Painting by Thomas Hart Benton
From passionforpaintings.com

hurry the day

move along

keep ahead

of the storm

cheat the thunder

outrun the

electrified air

save your shadow

from murder by

darkcast of clouds

should you falter

and fall beneath

torrents of rain

all is lost

washed forever

from memory

swept from the

cycling of history

leaving at most

a sweet petrichor

aftermath scent

an ephemeral wisp

fleeting wraith

ecological figment

Inheritance

“Environment Painting 1”
Painting by kuroso
From deviantart.com

land is legacy
left by the life of the wind
by the forces of nature
heirlooms of soil and stone
standing timberlands
cool running creeks at their feet
mountains valleys and meadows
the deserts and tundra
the seabed and river-course
heaving with essence
of serum that animates life

these are gifts
the substantial bequests
from the passing of eons
through fabricant fingers
and generous motives
of sternly affectionate earth
terrains ever aging and changing
and teaching of challenge
which heritor creatures
possess heart sufficiently
apt for the learning

Water

“Trout Stream”
Painting by Max McKenzie
From fineartamerica.com

pure essence of life
lubricant of creation
more precious than love
squandered by the heartless
access plagues the destitute