The Dugout

I walked through the dugout this morning
and the sky on the other side was brown

and the cage was the dugout.
and the cage was empty.

And the trees reached for a sky
they could no longer touch
because we cut them down
because we pushed the sky back

and the cage was me.
and the cage was empty.

So I stripped down to my skin and shivered
among bare trees
then I shed my skin and let my bones fall away
and I emptied my veins
and then I was all muscle, all heart
and I opened.

I watched seven birds sing across the brown sky
I echoed the trees as they danced in the winterlight.
And then I let my muscle fall, too.
I was only a prayer, now.
For an instant, no more or less than the light and love
of this whole earth.

And my body asked for me to return.

and I was full.
and the cage was empty.

12.3.16