Monkeywrenching

I look at nature

the way that life pulses through it

the murmurations of birds

the running of inanga

and salmon

and herrings

and antelope

and bison

the inconceivable abundance

that powers this living planet

and all of the life upon it

and in it

and around it

and I worry

because we have pillaged it

despoiled it

ripped it apart

like clueless fucking idiots

and what have we left

for everyone else?

the bears

the wolves

the eagles and hawks

the whales and the orcas

all those beautiful

mesmerising

incredible

awesome beings

what have we left them?

or even left our own children?

are we really

that

stupid?

Every day you change
your eyes now slate not
magnetite black
or dark as the infinite sky.
You are coming into your body
into this world
sharpening and shrinking
like light through a lens
a star coming into focus.

I cried when you were born
your body indescribably soft in my hands
as soft as the womb you were born from
“Once the head’s out”
she says
“the feeling of the body sliding
down the birth canal
is amazing”

I’ll never know but
I cried
because of the intensity
because of her courage
because you had come.