I’m sending out Letters to the Editor and OpEd pieces promoting the petition to whatever publications I think might accept them. Please feel free to send your own Letter to the Editor to your own local newspaper. Meanwhile, inspired by “…they paved paradise and put in a parking lot…” from Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi.
Under a dark moon,
she hunts the land for what
she cannot leave behind:
the scent of marigold
crushed on skin;
the fragile grace
of seedling maples;
the soft acceptance
of lambs ear leaves —
all lost to the dark,
to a place too ruined
for digging.
Tirelessly, she wrestles
the ghosts she has come
to free from the hold
of reluctant stone,
from the evil spell
binding the earth once
worked with the patient
need of her hands.
Held by the moment,
I breathe deeply
the sharp-scented air,
search for signs
of moon in the sky,
pray to find
what has been lost
from her night
and from my own.
