I Asked the Soil

I asked the soil

how she came to be

here as the dirt upon

which I stand and the

fields in which we plant.

She answered, she had

blown in across all time 

and across all space to be

here; carrying pieces of

all cast-off life from the

beginning of time itself.

She said, she was not just 

dust mites,and the sloughings 

off of the skin of everything that has 

once had life within, but also

things we believe are not 

animated with life like rocks, 

and stones, and glaciers.

She told me, She is the collected 

dead of the whole of earth, and of all

the galaxies that breathe

themselves onto and across 

our planet.  All here together.

All here gathered. All of the 

galaxies and all of the solar 

systems, and all of the pieces 

of each and more which

have seen death blow in and

build life anew – a million

million times before humankind.

She explained that 

we are the ones who lack

the perspective to know that

we are ourselves irrelevant.

The place we hold as watchers-

that-may-craft-words, does not

exempt us from the overturning

power of death to build up

and to tear down every piece

of life and make it dirt –

through and through.

She reminded me that we 

are dust from the heavens 

and billion year old carbon.