nativity of now

1.
when one by one the trees fell
when buildings began
to scrape the clouds
when goods became gold
became notes – became shifting
numbers in a digital system
became worth
when earth became asset
when coal of the deep
burned and burned
eating the sky and lungs of the living
until even the moths changed colour to survive
when lives became cheap
and everything disposable
throw away away
where?
when whalesong became cries and pleas
rumbling the bones of our sleep

tell me
who among us
did not know this was wrong,
which child did not grow up asking
but why?

2.
when they asked kane tanakei
the oldest person on earth
what in her life she had enjoyed most
she did not hesistate
or cast her mind back
through her many years
to find a perfect moment

but pointing an emphatic finger
to where she was
she said “ this –
right now”

3.
so i said bring it on – the change,
(be the change – am the change)
let all else fall away –
and it does and i do.
fall. slip.
slip of the tongue and thought.
slip in the mud of this flood.
slipping in shoes in this mud
where no shoes were made for walking.

quiet mist morning mud flood
i walk – barefeet ankle deep
in slip-silk mud,
feel my way in slowly
until the earth offers firm footing
for our journey

4.
when the end of the world comes
a man will sell his daughter for
food enough to get them
through the dry season or
drink enough to forget her name.

when the end of the world comes
the lawns of suburbia
will be neatly trimmed
screen lights flicker
soothing living room walls

when the end of the world comes
we will be sipping tea
ocean elbow deep
and rising

when the end of the world comes
a great plague will
creep across the nations
silent and deadly –
its name is apathy

when the end of the world comes
we will understand
that the world we live
is not the same
as the earth that lives

5.
tell me who among us
did not know this was wrong
which child among us
did not grow up asking but why.

6.
and now and now
the day comes soft
skin to skin
with air so thick and warm
with summer and mist you can eat it –
birds rowing the full air
on purring wings –
calling to one another
from the fruit hung trees

the forest begins
and begins again with
each breath of the many –
my voice is breath of the forest
flesh shaped and rounded
with the morning.

7.
if we saw all –
the beginning and end
and the linear projection
of our actions and reactions,
if we knew already
all there was to know,
would any of us still be here –
would any of us choose to live.

8.
we summoned the change wind
and it came
like a slow salt beast, barnacle-skinned
we summoned the change wind
shaping our siren prayers – luminous, winged
until our skin remembered the taste of rain
we summoned the change wind
and it came

---

For Brendan at earthweal’s weekly challenge: native to the now

https://earthweal.com/2022/01/17/earthweal-weekly-challenge-native-to-the-now/

Advertisement