Post by George Payne

There Were Mothers leaning over rivers listening for what water remembers they learned the language of bees before they learned the language of kings how sweetness is made by carrying the world's pollen from one improbable blossom to another somewhere, the Nile is still being born somewhere, the dead are crossing a river of reeds carrying flowers in their mouths like prayers they never had time to speak the lions are watching the doves are watching above them an eight-pointed star burns at the center of the dark its true name spoken differently by every civilization that has ever looked up and wondered whether beauty survives us it does the harvest says so maize lifting its green hands toward heaven chocolate melting on the tongue of a child wind moving through the yucca's sharp fingers the sea returning fish to those who remembered to say thank you every god worth remembering has dirt beneath their finger nails they know how to weave clothes from grass and grief. they know medicine hidden in bark and stories sleeping in groves of ancient trees they know that dance is older than doctrine that art arrives before empire that games are sacred when played beneath the moon the river teaches this nothing remains itself for long water becomes cloud seed becomes flower the dead become memory memory becomes song even warfare that old shadow cannot keep the earth from growing wildflowers through its ruins they die and return die and return bringing spring folded inside their sleeves and somewhere in the wilderness the tribe's shaman stands beneath the moon body and spirit equally astonished to belong to the earth what else is resurrection but the body's refusal to forget its own abundance listen the bees are still working the river is still speaking the lions still guard the threshold the doves still carry peace in their small white bodies and the world for all its sorrow continues to dress itself in rainbows as if creation itself cannot decide whether it is magic motherhood or simply another name for love returning home GC Payne *Digital photo by the author