Listen from the part of you that came from the dirt

Listen from the part of you that always returns to the dirt

Listen from the part of you that is seasonal

Listen from the part of you that is already surrendered to the divine

 

something in me broken now will not 

recover    be mended    return

something must be buried

not inside me

but inside us

 

and in that way deepest inside me —

some creviced self is exhaling

slowing down

i cannot keep up 

i will not last 

 

we must become the prayer 

we must become the land

 

we cannot know all of the things

i no longer want to

i want all of this to matter

this praying, screaming

singing, rebelling

 

i know we don’t move backwards

i am a salt woman stark against the horizon

tho i may not dance again 

and i may not save another soul

i bear witness

 

we must become the prayer 

we must become the land

 

something in me faithful now will not

surrender to despair

how we actually are

demands a multitude of heavens

a soft beyond

 

and only in that way does god come

i lay supine in the dark of winter

prayer now constant, rivers flowing 

over, under every rock

the holy touch

 

we must become the prayer 

we must become the land

 

i am no longer who i ever was

the channel now so wide

the portal now so vast

carrying oh so many souls

do   not   test   me

 

we are no longer who we ever were

we have become responsible

set apart from our past selves, shirking the weight

we fly now, the dead give us wings

do   not   test   us

 

we must become the prayer 

we must become the land

 

something in me, in us, is whole again

transformation the only medicine

the buried selves are blooming

not only within me

but within each of us

 

only in this way

in this struggle and surrender

do we become the seeds we pray for

do we become the harvest the we pray for

do we become the miracle we pray for

do we become the land we pray for

do we become the people we pray for

 

we must become the prayer 

we must become the land

we must become the prayer 

we must become the land

we have become the prayer

we have become the land

we have become the prayer

we have become the land

 

and once again

it is spring