St. Nothing
….
It is hard to believe in humanity when all it does is throw grenades at feelings.
Not even patient enough to wait for the aftermath.
When news scares rather than informs.
Is it no wonder we choose to stay indoors?
The rotating earth doesn’t care about human greed.
It most likely (hopefully) will be here long after humans are absent from its sphere.
Today I read about a star eating its planet.
Even space has its hungers.
Once the star had swallowed its orb it began to shine brighter taking energy from its meal.
Maybe wonder then is something to believe in.
The way after eons of removal buffalo return to familiar migration patterns.
That trees communicate through their crowns.
Mycelium with their underground network of signals.
The flower dropped by an unassuming bird growing in the drainpipe.
Its purple bobbing startling me into curiosity one ordinary morning.
The wonder is that there is life at all left on this concrete studded planet.
After all we have learned to survive.
Breath held, hands clenched.
Wonder what will be there when we awake in the morning.
…..
This poem is from the chapbook All the Pretty Things Are Dying by Laurel Maxwell (Finishing Line Press) and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/all-the-pretty-things-are-dying-by-laurel-maxwell/
All the Pretty Things Are Dying includes poems that speak to environmental loss, longing for the heart’s desires to be seen and recognized, beauty in life’s everyday moments, and questions that reach into the soul. Many poems rely on close observation of the natural world in order to make sense of our place in the universe and grapple with how to exist while living within a constant state of change and uncertainty.
Laurel Maxwell is a writer and poet from Santa Cruz, CA. Her work draws inspiration from the natural world and is moved by the ways people interact with a changing climate. Her work has appeared at baseballballard.com, coffecontrails, phren-z, Verse-Virtual, Tulip Tree Review, and Yellow Arrow Vignette. She also blogs about travel, and teaching. She holds a B.A from Whitworth University and served as Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She works in education and loves to get lost in bookshops.
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