Mother Earth

Mother Earth

by Caitlin Taylor

2008

Mother Earth,
you are so giving.
Though chainsaws 
and grappleyarders
massacre your hillsides,
still trees unfurl their leaves,
and buds bestow the beauty 
of their blooming.

Though factories pump 
offal into the air
and all along your shores,
you lavish us, even so,
with streams and rivers, 
waterfalls and lakes,
and your everness of waves pound
as surely onto the coastline
as if nothing has changed
in a million years.

Though fracking cleaves your innards,
and they're messing
with your very atmosphere,
still your big old smiling sun
comes yawning up behind the mountains
every morning,
and a blue sky unfurls the gift
of a brand new day.

How do you stay so beautiful,
when angry little pustules of war 
are breaking out all over the planet,
bombs exploding, the madness 
of nuclear "testing" shaking 
your very foundation?

And still you smile on us
your beautiful Earth Mother smile.
You array a visual feast for us
in every corner of the landscape.
You color your mountains,
decorate them with clouds,
drape misty shawls
along their shoulders.
You people the planet
with beautiful fur beings,
creatures that fly and swim,
to delight our eyes and
warm our hearts,
to help us strive.
You give us sunset,
night after night,
so we can dream. 

Forgive us for being
acting-out adolescents,
not yet wise enough to understand
the largesse of your offering.

May we grow up fast,
so we can be 
good sons and daughters
to you,
care for you as tenderly
as you deserve.

Mother Earth,
how do you remain
so patient?