Poem by Jude Jannet
Environment – November 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
Earth Day Dialogue, 1996
Said I do this for love of my mother.
Ah, but does she really love me,
you ask. Thought maybe
I was speaking of one particular
human, did you, the one we
blame all our troubles on?
Seems to me,
we all come from the same mother
big enough to birth every livin’ one
of us. We are all kin.
Does my mother love me?
I answer with a willow tree
a dozen tiny blades of grass,
a daffodil, and still you ask,
but does she love you?
Ah, yes, I say I feel it
on a rainy day, her
tears falling on my cheeks
her harsh winds shaking
my windows. At night she
tells me stories, carries me off
sometimes when I’m lost
in my own misery and madness
kisses me all over, plays
with my hair and chases me inside.
I dare not take for granted her wind breath
or the fruit of her belly that feeds me
cycle after cycle, her lush tree hair
that sweeps along the sky clearing
the poison of our own breath, her
fresh fragrance reminding me of
how to be a lover and make babies
her heart beat drumming up fire
in my womb. Do you still wonder
does she love you?
We are bone of her bones
and will be even in death, she
is the mother and I love her.
Copyright © 1997 by Jude Jannet. All rights reserved.
