Thursday June 28, 2012

Because the Earth does

By: Brooke Gale  Luby

we all want to know,

“what’s wrong with the world?”
but we don’t want to hear the answer
we need newer medicine
to cope with the speed 

of our world spinning

our inner ears are off balance
because we hear but we don’t hear

so we develop vertigo
and stay in bed all day
avoiding digging ditches and answering e-mails
surrounded by our TV personalities and down pillows
our pill box always within reach
while the world waits outside

still groaning

and we know things are broken
things beyond the ache in us

so we follow the groan outside of our gated community
we stumble past strip malls  and churches
we ignore the conman’s sales pitch and
can finally hear the ocean in front of us

so we run to the water
we rub our fingers on sharp barnacles
clinging to slippery rocks
till specks of blood drips out our hands
and something in the red wakes us up
and we let the waves lick them clean
the salt waters heal

on the sand  barefoot we spin
not because the swirling colors melt the
world into something transcendent
a little like seeing
skyscrapers reflected in puddles
not because drugs run through us
or the sickness is rampant

we spin because the earth does

we crush blades of sea grass between our fingers
just to know they’re not synthetic
to know the fragility of things that grow

the fragility of us

So don’t medicate our minds
let in the pain
let it bleed
let it be destroyed

and then let it bloom

Because that’s what the earth does