i yearn for her now,
amid car horns and
coffee-stained sidewalks.
under bare, lifeless sky,
i long for her shade.
these streets are swarmed, but
there is no life until
the wind blows and i am
reminded she is here, among the
hard highways of Houston;
she is waiting for me
to find her.
in the darkest night, she shines.
in the heat of the drought, she thrives.
in the deepest of floods, she survives.
if her roots can grow through the cracks
of the concrete, so can mine.
whispers and giggles
(they never raise their voice).
they never speak louder than
the rain
they are sprouted from.
dear little egg, you’re
going to open your eyes
for the first time in a white
room, not knowing that
my childhood home is now
underwater. and when
you are older, i will let
you run in the back yard
without shoes on, but
you will never know the comfort
of sinking into healthy
soil. you will never understand
what it means to make a mark on
the earth that does not hurt
it.
seven years’ worth of leaves
will still be decaying, and
i will not know how to explain
where they came from.
i will not know how to explain
to you that other beings used to
live here, too, or
that there was once another planet
underneath a green canopy and
in autumn, the skies would
bathe in fire.
inhale. exhale.
inhale oxygen. exhale carbon dioxide.
inhale oxygen exhale carbon dioxide.
inhale oxygen inhale carbon dioxide exhale oxygen inhale carbon dioxide inhale
oxygen exhale carbon dioxide exhale oxygen exhale carbon dioxide inhale carbon dioxide inhale oxygen inhale
carbon dioxide exhale
oxygen exhale
carbon dioxide inhale oxygen
exhale carbon dioxide exhale oxygen.
she’s at her ripest.
shedding rainbows from her limbs
before all turns white.
take a breath before
you jump off the deep end,
child.
don’t you want to see
the canyons around you before
you commit
yourself to a cubicle?run, and feel the breeze
in your hair before
you put on your suit and
tie. your hands
have yet to touch
so much.the paper they give you
is only worth what you
let it be.
don’t let it boss you around.take your head out of your
computer screen
and put it back in the clouds.
i find the quietness i crave
amid the forest’s windy veins
where my mind can be at peace,
where my thoughts vacate with ease.
here my feet become my breath
and my mind one with the earth,
i come to realize my worth:
an atom in the universe.
With each step we pass
Under every patch of grass
A multidimensional web of life
We can’t begin to grasp.
– By my beautiful friend, Sienna Valente-Blough
Silenticel 