Mother Earth - April 13 2025

 

Mother Earth

April 13 2023

I used to think the ocean

was the same salt as blood.

That there was a constancy to things,

a unity

of the living

and the blue-and-green planet

that sustains life.

An amniotic sea

in which we're all at home.

But ocean salinity

is 4 times us.

And even when we weep

our tears are dilute;

sweet water

compared to the sting of the sea.

So while it has substance

we are thin broth,

floating on its density,

catapulting-up

from its depths.

What difference does this make?

Does the ocean repel us

or invite us in?

Are we native and organic

and at home on this planet,

or temporary aliens

with little sense of place?

Distant relations

keeping to ourselves,

or transients

who feel estranged?

An irritant

a healthy body walls off,

or contaminant

that consumes its host?

Or even worse,

the bastard offspring

of Mother Earth?