Weathered Wing

Empyrean and earthy,

along morning's earliest peak

The water, steadily, falling

The only way I would find her,

in trance, listening to an early bird calling

She lived her nights in a hallowed out tree,

feasting on bugs, feathers, and feet

Today, she offered me a different treat,

a handful of berries:

sugar pear, saskatoons, elder, globular in shape

They were sweet and smelled of September sun

I wanted to tell her how beautiful she had become,

but her skin had started falling off,

revealing brushed flesh and swollen vessels

I rubbed my fingers along her back,

her spine ached and curled underneath her gown,

as old as the decades that had long passed

She coughed and hissed,

spraying out a mirage of seeds and blood

My time with her was short now,

as Earth searched for its coldest hour,

beckoning frigide seasons filled with powder,

swallowing her breath,

stale and sour

And on the darkest hour,

when Anubis comes back to wash away all that is fertile,

the soles of her feet, I'd watch

sink into bearing soil

Her arms, reaching out

holding on, as the rest of her flesh,

ripe and bittersweet,

would silently fall

And Earth,

closing its mouth, once again,

on all that has lived

long enough

For the celebration over at dVerse Poets on Open Link Night. Congratulations on the year, glad I've found you guys! Cheers!