I am kindling.
Burn.
Me.
Up.
Does this shock you?
Do you think you are better than a tree?
I do not bend like a windbent Willow.
Not good hollow and hard like Bamboo.
No graceful, heavy arms uplifting fledging green tips
like Cedar.
10 fingers and toes.
Mammalian brain.
Nervous system triggers
Metal in the mouth
At the site of tiger’s teeth.
Oh, if I only could burn before they are extinct.
Human.
Cells and genes determine this.
A brain stem.
Thumbs.
Bear can travel 60 miles in one day.
My dog Lily smells 5,000 times more than me.
What does the bear know that I will must learn that
I do not understand.
What does longing smell like.
Maybe I’ll burn up fast,
All passion fueling some degree of unity.
Some essence of love, maybe not pure.
But as clean as I know how.
Not a clean as an underground stream,
Trickled water through moss and silt.
Not clean like untouched as snow.
Not love as pure as my dog’s.
Or the old elephant who mourns his dead.
Not strut as keen as cat.
Just human.
Who burns with the fire of pitch.
Me, you, tree, rock.
One spirt and so many expressions,
So much infinite love of life.
teaching breath by breath.
And the communal knowing.
In the bark and paw and tusk and roar,
In the hug and the dive and the soar.
Just us.
One tribe only.
Lessened with every death.
Strengthened by every choice to love.