Our love is a gentle breeze
I am a mountain, tall and solid
From my soil grows all types of fruit,
Warm and ripe from the summers sun
From my ground—sharp rocks, jagged edges
You cut your feet when you try to climb me
Your hands reach for the delicious fruit
Hanging there on branches like slender arms
Your blood soaks into the earth of me,
Wet and dark
The ground is fertile like the lining of a womb
The rocks are a boundary raised from
Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes; things that injure
And kill
And our love floats up to me,
Where the white snow covers my highest peaks
It sings to me, asks me to allow you inside
Every crevice and cave
Allow you to pick any fruit you desire
Taste its sweetness
But I shake my earth like a quivering woman
In rage, in shame, in storm clouds and rain
Red fire engulfs the trees, the birds, all things
Alive and beautiful
I am covered in ashes, black as onyx stone
I cannot accept your bleeding feet, your outstretched arm,
Your longing song you sang to me
And yet, beneath the ashes of my rage and pain
The tiniest of sprigs pushes itself stubbornly
Through the hot earth
Its leaves are the newest green, soft and supple
Like the breasts of a young woman
And then it stands taller, grows wider, takes up more space
Soon I am covered in these proud plants
Then trees, and their strong branches
Where birds come to nest and raise their young
I am alive again
The mountain breathing
My lover comes again, here you are
Your feet have healed and my rocks
Don’t
Cut you
You are patient in your climbing,
Holding onto earth and tree
You find me in the quiet solace of
My highest peaks
We rest together in the comforting snow
I hear the song you sing to me
And I begin to sing it too
We live together
And the blood-soil you gave me
Has become a sign for
New things
To come and grow here
