My Life Reincarnate
The moon and the planets
shine just for me now, and the giant
silver poplar has overshadowed me
long enough. Cut it down,
so I will not remember where it
came from so long ago, when
we stole it from a riverbank,
put it in the trunk of my car and
brought it home, an emblem
of our passion.
These days are peculiar,
as though I had given birth
in some faraway place
and come home again at last,
but with no babe in arms,
just my purged self.
My eyes reacquaint themselves
with green grasses, the swan curve
of lily leaves, sprawling nettle,
aging tulip petals strewn about,
remnants of a gone season.
The energy I once poured
into nurturing something
now returns back to me,
like the gentle dead
returning themselves
to the earth.
Like the earth itself,
continually dying
and restored.
Claire Juno, © 2016
vindicating vashti 