by Jackie Knowlton

FYS 178 with Heidi Kelley

The Earth has a heart

She is smart

And sturdy

She protects herself

You’ve seen her send ocean waves dancing in fury

Her wrath was never directional or conventional

It was long held

She loved too selflessly not to send out a flame one day, crying out to be heard

“Haven’t I given enough?”, She screams

The Earth never wanted to hurt us,

Never wanted to burn us,

but we knew that we threw the first flame.

The answer has never been simple

We always knew the end would come,

Yet we never planned

to make ourselves less responsible

We don’t need all of this to survive

These empires did not build us

we built everything unnecessarily

We tried to make everything easier

and it was

temporarily

We stand in front of our creation now,

Asking ourselves, “was it worth it?”

Will it be worth it to give up our empires?

“Yes”, a whisper echoes loudly through cavernous land mines

spins like bottle caps on a vengeful breeze

Mother Nature’s eyes will be

flourishing valleys

That we never dare touch

She is the blush of morning on front lawns

growing tall, daunting, and unkempt

Her seven wonders amplify

every block and

blink

that fir tree, that dandelion seed, everything plucked from fertile valleys

the mosaic of rainwater as it gushes down the city street

every stream

and cave

As the midnight sky is met by branches stretching out past the skyline like hands exalting

Her seven wonders amplify

Her timelessness is echoing

The breeze heaves a heavy sigh

She is tired

She is waiting to be loved by us

Loved enough to be protected

But we burned Her trees

The very things we breathe by

 We shout into souls of valleys

We dance on bones and loathe endings

The Earth is our giving tree

When will we be

Truly happy for the days themselves

I melt into Mother Nature’s arms once more

She can swallow me

Lava coursing through my veins

We are tempted to sail on Her waves forever

But She controls the sea

It is Her breeze and way forever