humanity as part of nature

[ humanity as part of nature ]

there is no longer a mother and a child

when on Sunday the harbinger of death
we watched brood heavily
against the luminous pallor of the sky

there were no more cherubim, no more angels

a farmer tends her livestock
among the burden of a Venetian landscape

three lilies not yet
in bloom
                           an insubstantial line of cloud

high up, the thin, leafless trees sway imperceptibly

there is the death of a child as inexplicable as dust
falling, not only about sunlight or soot on the harsh texture
of soil, but about bones becoming soil becoming bones

a pair of egrets
fighting with a snake
                                           want
                                           move flowering into opulence

and after the blue and russet
of her robes form a pyramid
(unmistakable presence and weight)
we believe in Mary from greater than

          or less than light
* * * * *