Unit

Before us, someone
pushed their foot down
crumpling earth beneath a high arch
shifting dirt like sand
forming mountains either side
sun and time healing
fault lines, plastered over
with gentle greens and browns
then broken by a dark road
snaking around and up.
Sharp rocks, steep cliffs cut

exposed bones
harsh and bare enough to
puncture skin, inspire
feeling. Giant guilty thumbs
smoothed a damaged surface
eyes shut tight softly rubbing out
and over, soothing rolling hills that
sheep climb like maggots
that cars occasionally crawl over
skin flakes on hunched shoulders.
Perfect, I am nothing
Strong brittle birds stammer
in the ocean of a
sky so blue an iris on a
different scale waiting for the hour

Paua pinks and purple sneak and dribble
across like veins, a  bruise
to hug the earth so old
it fills that space of young in me
Small blind and empty but now
I see, quiet nature
humming in my brain. An echo
in these holy hills
man made
fences circling up our peak, the
Centre of my being
Home is here

Time has stopped
patchwork world spread out below
divided, we separate with stitches
Carved up, hacked in two by
the river rushing so clear and free
it could be sky. The fish could fly
The clouds could sink
I’ll watch. In time,
A blink  and I’ll come up here
Run from that road, slip through the wires
crawl into the smile of a
hollow left here before
For us
In times of need,  to
see and hear what’s real
the pulse of the earth, wind
whispering to me. I’ll let my blood
Slip into the soil
Stare out into everything until
I’m dust.

Here long before and after us

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i really love this piece, and read it a bit differently...
i see the imprint of the big foot of the one who made all this...and we get to enjoy what he gave us by living with and among nature, the sea, the mountains...and we put up our fence...but then it leads to a bit of sadness..we build fences to keep others out..we don't share, we accumulate...and then we take and take and take from the land, cover the land with buildings, malls, whatever we can build...

and we destroy what once was so beautiful...when there was only the one who made it...and what was made.

before us...and sometime long after us...i bet it will all go back to what it once was.

[barton smock]

into the smile of a hollow...perfect, I am nothing...and a bruise to hug the earth so old it fills the space of young in me...these, and others. not strongarm, but strength.

[Nobody]

Sturdy rich and precious prose. I felt myself etwine with earth and word, mud and word. Masterfully done.

[...]

beautifully poetic
and moving beyond measure
when dust dances in light
it's the most beautiful visual ever
called brownian movement
your words dance
with much grace and freedom
in all the hues of life

[Pretty Faces Split Open]

Love it, especially
"For us
In times of need, to
see and hear what’s real
the pulse of the earth, wind
whispering to me. I’ll let my blood
Slip into the soil
Stare out into everything until
I’m dust."

So beautiful

[L]

nice piece of free verse; the cadence and manipulation of poetic device is all there. I particularly like the aural device - midline rhyme etc

[SilentVerses]

Fluid flow that from a trickle of water turns into a torrent of truths, a hidden depth peeks through the words laid out for all to see, as angles of the limbs you speak wrap their dwindling warmth around the skeletal beauty of your chosen words, images dance clearly outward in praise of your vivid harrowing mesh of description, stunningly true and bright blinding crystals dance in the moonlight of your piece each stanza on its own holds a meaning true and cherished, holding your outlet close to your heart a pure self has been poured and overflowing your words hold a great passion and hurt.

[Chris]

Mal,

Strong flow... more to taste.