FIRE

River makes its final clunk Between Hills Rolling boulders like turtle shells Empty of their mouths and hearts River bent Flailing legs and neck No longer reflects The sun and moon From water’s absence down its back. Turns her terrible brittle head From me Teeth gnashing on the spools of willow To her memory When mud was forest Footsteps Croaking with frogs and dazzled with dragonflies Ringed in a halo of cold fog. We are dying Together Not angels nor even demons But conquering visitors from a desert Who brought nothing but the leech of desert With us Covering the entire Earth with insatiable thirst And hunger Kings and Queens for a day Destroyers Of those ceremony drums Of gods and plants animals and language When we lived as One Gift Strummed through the harp of gratitude. Now, I seek a forgiving signal From perhaps a divine wave Coming from the dying Mother This way You poor skinless fool The fire shall burn behind you The entire Earth and its people Which is all the things that flutter Crawl walk and sing "An empty bowl With a spoon beside you."