Green Losses

How many are the green losses
How heavy are the losses
Ask the animals
And they will tell you
Ask the earth and it will teach you

Those sleeping in the earth
Who loved the earth
And were murdered protecting it
I wish for them the richest blackness
Of soul-seeding eternity
Starry nights of soil
Wetland awakenings

For those murdered
Protecting the earth
Wherever the black sunbird flies
I wish for them the revenge
Of regeneration and restoration

May the vines of the Amazon
Entwine them all about the neck
May the heavens uproot
The worldly children
And save a garden for the rest

An Equal Return

We found a young snake on the road.
We found a young snake on the road.

It was November but felt like spring.
The month had shed its skin.

What shall we do with a serpent
When stars are the tail of the sun?

What shall we do with the earth
When we are beings of a dream?

We didn’t know where to find its den.
It swam from my hand like something Zen.

It’s a gift from the earth to catch a dream.
A gift to the earth to return the seed.