Rupture Stone

Eileen Earhart Oldag

―rupture and gasp sick swollen gut oppression bursts its bile over all over us again we gasp disease of latworms power disorders us disorders human natural order sweat of green lies power over justness infects rabid dog power over glory all glory undone rancid power putreies its own raw meat spews sickness sickened we gasp—

―rupture and low Earth eats itself belches back ire ash old form molten to unformed too raw too sharp too hard to be life but patient 2,000 years if a limber pine has rooted in this crater work is underway this world a promise remade

promise ocean cold salted crown of reef elastic sky cloud stretched rebounded promise jungle rain forest sedged seep ferned spring waterfall mossed uplift mountain mesa plateau down-cut gorge litter of loods promise earth a bunting bag or shroud promise ire reining purity of ire—

―rupture stone and pray living and dead we turn to stone if tap root of pine tree is chisel chisel through stone chisel onto stone last prayer

pray mystery of feathers back into being pray egg pray industry of beetle determination of termite annoyance of gnat pray true light for tortoise resonance for bat and whale pray luminescence

pray parable of elephant outrageousness of kangaroo incongruence of hippo and girafe pray education of herring and mullet journey of salmon and lamprey pray spit of frog

pray nightshade cacti aloe and elderberry purpled skin amber muscle of plum pray seed cedar sequoia bristlecone baobab ebony pray mangrove

pray might of magnetism and migration pray instinct senses prowess purposeful death by talon web or jaw pray power into every being but human―

―rupture and recompense pray power into all beings but human pray human heart stone chiseled wind weathered to sand unreposed ocean buried pressed powerless powerless over human natural other over any other before we do this one to another ever again—