Earth

Two people cannot see the same way but they can teach One another their ways. One gives up body and soul To follow the flow of the historical woman until He can close his eyes and glide through mountains effortlessly. He gives up earth and he gives up air, he gives up being touched But he forgets to give up desiring to be touched. Then One day the sun is hot or the moon is full, he desires Uncontrollably to be touched and he flies smack Into the mountain and never comes out the other side. You live to prepare yourself to die. You leave behind A wreck of strewn projects or a few icy pearls. Incredibly you leave your voice behind saying Over and over again the same words. You leave Memories of yourself behind as pictures in the heads Of people who wish you weren't dead or hadn't been alive. They wash the pictorial body, shave it, comb your hair The way they liked it best, cut a little here, add a little there, Then easily, easily and kindly forget you. Two hundred years later the wall crumbled and burned. The ashes were spread logically across the plain, A mathematical formula could describe the distribution. The ashes were like seeds and from them A thousand higher walls were made. It was lovely To see those walls breathing imperceptibly Shifting their glances so slowly as to go unnoticed Behaving as if they were dead. If I breathe, they breathe. If they are ash, so am I. Having tried to separate myself and failed I donate my body to science. The wall needs me To breathe and hear. It gets my ears and lungs. Trees need me to cast their night spells. Are they asleep or are they dancing A primitive fertility dance in the forest? I choose trees because they can watch everything From the distance of longevity. To them I donate my soul. Everything should be made of earth. Earthen walls, earthen homes, earthen bodies, earthen sex. Nothing should be made of air. Earth should inhale And exhale air. Air should whip and caress earth. Air should dry it out and crumble it. Earth. Water should wet it and dissolve it. Earth. What is the function of fire? Fire makes earth permanent And then fire makes earth into air. Water Makes earth into mud. Mud makes earth into homes. Homes make earth into walls. Walls make the earth breathe. Breathing makes the earth crumble. Crumbling Makes the earth seed.