Salt the Earth
Don’t come to me for retribution
When it was you who assailed
Our land with a barrage of salt.
What once we grew in earnest
And loyalty, you diminished to
Nothing but naked and sickly
Soil. An acres worth of soil.
You hide behind your pretense,
That you may wish it gone
If you walk away,
That you may wish it gone
If you push it behind you.
You cannot walk away,
You cannot push it behind
When this land holds your labor.
The labor we cared for,
The labor we laughed while,
The labor we swaddled in vicious cold nights
When neither of us could comprehend
What may happen, we just had each other.
I loved you.
I held your image to a light
And never saw through it,
Never fearing transparency
Between our bodies and
Within our growing garden.
Now what of this garden
You left for me to bury?
Now what of this image
I hold up to a light and only
See a ghost?
Never did you once look me in the eyes
And with sorrowful breath declare apology,
Declare regret, recognize this earth
We worked so hard for. You cleansed it
With supreme alacrity, with no remorse.
Do not forget you salted this soil,
Because I will never let you.
