They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart. -- Jeremiah
My children, my lost stones
Return, return to me!
Why have you abandoned my places?
The rocks of your gifted mazes,
among them Leopard walks alone.
Do you not hear Jackal?
Are the sounds of his calls
forbidden to you?
Your stones are falling,
there is no sound of my young builders.
Must your corners remain empty?
My spiders' venom is dry,
they so miss the life you brought.
I love you. My branches seek out your homes.
Are my lands not as before?
Does my beauty vex you?
I sent you sweet fragrance,
sky messengers,
ringed your hearts with my towers,
built corral castles, oceans for your facings.
You asked my rivers to move:
for you I moved them,
do not curse my deserts.
Now you have touched moon,
do your dreams leave me
for the jewels of the sky?
Bring back yourselves,
let me embrace your bones.
I call, but it is a thousand cycles,
your songs no longer grace my wilderness.
Did you not once laugh in your cities?
These are only my lost stones,
I will take them back into me.
It is what you left me,
what I gave you.
June 18, 2007