Earth spirit burns,
an internal fire.
The shadow lives on in the body,
just as it does in the memories of the blood.
Gasping for air, struggling,
desperate to find life’s fragile lines
under the relentless weight of loss.
Arteries and veins are forced into cross lines –
bleed through their walls and soak the veils between times.
The interior beating amplifies.
Echoes pulsate wild in the body unable to find breath –
and drown in the atmosphere. The darkened world,
words turn to sounds and dance only to the invisible.
Seconds and minutes spiral as palindrome into hundreds of years.
Life ends textured through desperate pleas for the mother.
The bell rings across the river between life and death,
calling as the boat leaves the dock,
always on time.
Imprints of predation call into focus the fragility
of flesh, bones, souls and skin.
Imprints coming alive in tune
with the angels of the waters and the forests
who without pause make elemental pathways
through which forceful winds can blow silence.
Distempered portraits materialize into the ether
Language searches in vain for itself.
Etches barely audible; low frequency scars on the land.
Phantoms and phrases feud in the beyond
as the survivor’s sound hard lament.
The body convulses internally without rhythm.
As summer rains rush, flash floods beat loud
under the earth’s burning skin.
The harmony on the water’s surface
as ageless oars make the crossing.
Breath—slow, heavy, the earth’s sighs live on.
The giant tree with broken branches stands firm
in timeless witness,
sees and recovers in the breath of the sun.
Even after we are gone.
This poem was commissioned by ecce: www.eccearts.com/inexorable
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