We Are Becoming Compost

Keratin, Calcium, Magnesium, Brine
Fiber, Liquid, Bone.
Root, Leaf, Thorn
Worm, Rot and Wine
Peeled
Combusted
Spontaneous Loss
Of incomes, plans, loved ones
Layers of Composure
Certainty.

We are Fragile
We have always been vulnerable.
Feigning our strength
Eliminating predators
Imagining Superiority
Fears vanquished for centuries,
Come rushing back in.
The house of cards has tumbled,
The games of power and progress have ended.
The only game in town is chance.
 
We are Being Culled
Peeled apart and torn open.
Catapulted onto the pyre.
Burned down to the ground.
Digging graves for newly dead bodies
And still warm plans and dreams.
Loved ones are carted off by the tens of thousands
Into boxes with wailing sirens.
Monitored, tubed, vented.
Longing for touch, breath, boredom
 
We are Being Re-Purposed
Told we are unessential
Uprooted and tossed aside.
Told we are essential
But not protected.
Summarily dismissed or taken for granted.
The lack of care
Is wide
and shockingly deep.
 
We are Locking Down
Freed from the cages of our habits
The push of our expectations
Those with homes shelter in
Becoming increasingly familiar with their bedroom walls
And each other.
Those without emerge day after day
Carting food and essentials to the fortunate
Saving lives
Risking their own.
 
We are Cracking Open
Our reputations grow hair and roots.
We are gaining stature
Becoming mountains and valleys,
Rushing rivers and steady streams,
Granite Mountains and Wind-shaped Oaks
Wells of deep grief and salt water.
 
We are planting the future
Churned by spring rains
The rot of false progress and gain
Will compost
From the soil of our forgetting
And the failures of colonial expansion
Ancient memory will sprout.
 
We will Arise
With creativity and determination
Mulched to a new sanity
We will find new purpose
And our essential nature.
We will emerge a changed people
Into a world we will not recognize.
We will value more, want less and be
Capable of creating
And caring for
A world
Where all life is essential.
 
 
Margaret Rosenau
Easter Sunday
April 12, 2020