Fallow Time
The cold earth, clothed by a scanty sun,
holds firm to blackened stems.
Barren, thorny branches stretch across fences,
and the inhospitable earth
clutches crucifixion-forms.
No visible, welcoming host awaits seed or plant.
Dried rivulets of cracked earth
attest to the past summer’s drought.
Nourished too little, bereft too long,
life has withered.
Compost and fertilizer, tilling and watering,
nothing brings forth resurrection.
Eyes behold winter’s blight that has stalked
blossom and sprout and eradicated each
with frozen scorn.
No heartening surge promises change.
Endless conformity exists in nothingness.
Dulled by weariness, depleted of energy,
eyes search but doubt.
The earth hides and knows.
Worms and microbes smaller than mites
move within the entombed earth.
They aerate and bind, transform and nurture.
Memory quickens.
Unseen signals transmit.
dwindling belief
communion with stilled summons
the search for answers
The cold earth, clothed by a scanty sun,
holds firm to blackened stems.
Barren, thorny branches stretch across fences,
and the inhospitable earth
clutches crucifixion-forms.
No visible, welcoming host awaits seed or plant.
Dried rivulets of cracked earth
attest to the past summer’s drought.
Nourished too little, bereft too long,
life has withered.
Compost and fertilizer, tilling and watering,
nothing brings forth resurrection.
Eyes behold winter’s blight that has stalked
blossom and sprout and eradicated each
with frozen scorn.
No heartening surge promises change.
Endless conformity exists in nothingness.
Dulled by weariness, depleted of energy,
eyes search but doubt.
The earth hides and knows.
Worms and microbes smaller than mites
move within the entombed earth.
They aerate and bind, transform and nurture.
Memory quickens.
Unseen signals transmit.
dwindling belief
communion with stilled summons
the search for answers