Here you are,
in-dependence
with all things.
The land is threaded
with rivers
that connect your body and blood
to the sea.
There is salt both on your skin
and in the distant waves,
and there is lightning
slicing from rain-thick clouds
behind the vultures coasting over the mesa.
The wind
against your face,
the same air that carries the
monarch butterfly
to desert milkweed,
that lifts the ravens’ wings
over the ruins of
the Hohokam,
that has kissed
the cheek of a thousand
generations.
The earth is made
of days
beyond count
and roots beyond question.
The fire in your belly
is that which whirls worlds into being.
There is iron in your blood,
iron at the planet’s core,
iron in the stars,
iron in beak of hawk
and eye of crow,
and iron in the red rocks
beneath your feet.
This air you breathe is
river woven,
lightning laced,
tear salted,
iron eyed,
earth kissed,
raven winged.
Wait,
let this breath expand
your chest
and know:
here you are,
today,
in-dependence
with all things.
Happy In-Dependence Day! May we each remember that our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of every strand in the web.
I wrote this poem on the 4th of July last year while traveling in the desert. A video reading version of it is available here.
