I don’t know about the rest of you my beloved friends, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying hit me hard. I don’t remember such a feeling of despair and grief since the 2016 election.
Out of that and the rest of this unique and difficult time, a new poem has been rising up. It may yet evolve, but here it is in its current manifestation.
From These Ashes
~ a poem in honor and remembrance of Ruth Bader Ginsburg ~
How does the phoenix
Rise
From these ashes?
My overstressed soul body
Already hunched nearly to the earth
Beneath
The weight of
Fear and Separation
Grief and Sorrow
Greed and Ignorance
Illness and Death
Smoke and Fire
Felt the blow of her dying
Like a final death stroke
Pounding my wounded, naked soul
into the deep ashes
Of the blackened forest floor.
How does she rise from these ashes?
The blow left me bleeding
Blood and sweat pouring down
The blow left me weeping
Snot and tears flowing
The blow left me dying
Shit and piss evacuated
Body and soul decaying into the ash.
How does she rise from these ashes?
How does she possibly rise?!
Blood and sweat
Tears and snot
Shit and Piss
Decay…
All mingle
and sink into the Ashes.
Absorbed by the earth
The microbes and mycelium gather
And feast, and dance, and nurture
And a single seed
Dormant beneath the black gray ash
Sparks to life
On my essence-enriched nutrient soup.
This is how she rises.
From the ashes below my prone form
Sprout tiny green leaves
Quickly,
Miraculously,
They grow
Surround
And lift that still
Silent soul bundle,
Through the mist
Through the dissipating smoke
Through the rain-soaked clouds
Ocean salt rain
washes away
Ash,
Shit,
Piss,
Tears,
Snot,
Blood,
And sweat.
A pristine
Glowing soul body is offered
in love, life, and light
To the warm golden sun
Which has risen
Again.
This is how she rises.
This is how we rise.
This.
Just this.
Sept 2020 – © by Wakil David Matthews
Yes!