in this world,
landscapes
scorched black
by apocalyptic
christmas fires,
sprout tiny
epic green life,
in a simple no-god
miracle.
after we
huddled
and wailed
a tribal grief
the heavy rains came
and flooded
and washed
despair away,
drop by
stunning,
de-parching,
drop
and now?
in this
slowed down world,
a tiny spiky crown –
the dark
self distancing disease,
threatens
a fire in our blood
a flood in our chests
to keep us apart
and stop
our beating hearts.
the ark animals
are not
rescuing us,
making boxes
sewing pouches.
the trees are not
dropping buckets
of vaccine
or dousing our fever.
because they
are awake,
to something
we forgot
that in this world,
this is not novel.
it’s ancient
and out of our hands,
lizard brain
to lizard brain
they know and
witness
the freeze
the frantic chirping
the caching and bulking
the hand outs
the growing whites
of our eyes
our soft bellies
tense,
‘like us’ they
whisper.
in this world,
we are meant to be
brought to our knees
and what will we
do when we’re there?
the dirt in our teeth
our salty tears in
the earth
our beautifully
terrible
mask muffled cries
echoing with
the birds
‘don’t leave me
all by myself’.
in this world,
we fight
we groan
we sing to each other
we make each other laugh
we know how to
take care
of each other
better
than we ever have,
even from afar.
in this world,
we live on
bowed and humbled
and we love
’cause there’s
no other way to
break
this spell.
(Australian) magpie
march 2020
……………..
Maggie works in the NFP sector in Sydney Australia and tinkers at poetry in her spare time. Check out her website.